JUN  L'H  1913 


BV  1520  .C635  1912 

Cope,  Henry  Frederick,  1870 

1923. 
Efficiency  in  the  Sunday 

school 


I? 


EFFICIENCY   IN   THE 
SUNDAY    SCHOOL 

HENRY  FREDERICK  COPE,  A.  M.,  D.  D. 


Efficiency  in  the  Sunday 
School 


By, 
HENRY  FREDERICK  COPE,  A.  M.,  D.  D 

General  Secretary  of  The  Religious  Education  Association. 

Author  of  "  The  Modern  Sunday  School  in  Principle  and 
Practice;"    "The  Efficient  Layman;"  "Evolu- 
tion of  the  Sunday  School ;"  "The 
Friendly  Life;"  Etc. 


HODDER  &  STOUGHTON 

NEW  YORK 

GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


Copyright,  1912, 
By  GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


FOREWORD 


This  is  not  a  liandbook  of  ^Hricks  and  devices'' 
warranted  to  speedily  insure  Sunday  school  suc- 
cess. It  is  an  attempt  to  consider  the  Sunday 
school  seriously  as  an  educational  institution,  hav- 
ing in  mind  the  needs  of  intelligent  teachers  and 
officers  who  are  earnestly  seeking  to  make  their 
schools  more  efficient.  Several  of  the  chapters 
appeared  in  Sunday  school  journals,  as  The  Pil- 
grim Teacher  J  The  Baptist  Teacher ,  The  Westmin- 
ster Teacher,  The  Sunday  School  Journal,  The 
Sunday  School  Executive,  The  Sunday  School 
Magazine,  and  in  Church  papers,  as  The  Stand- 
ard and  The  Interior.  To  the  editors  of  these 
journals  the  author  renders  grateful  acknowledg- 
ment for  permission  to  reprint.  However,  all  the 
articles  have  been  enlarged  and  rewritten  since 
their  first  publication. 

August,  1912,  E.  F.  C. 


CONTENTS 

Chaptkr.  P^^' 

I.     The  Efficient  Sunday  School,     -        -  3 

II.     Delusive  Definitions,       -        -        -  11 

III.  A  Church  Standard  for  Its  School,      -  18 

IV,  Educational  Engineers  in  THE  Churches,  31 

V.     How  TO  Organize  an  Efficient  Sunday 

School, 37 

VI.     The  Significance  of  the  Graded  School,  46 

VII.     Why  Some  Graded  Schools  Fail,  -        -  59 

VIII.     Is  This  a  Bible  School  ?     The  Curric- 
ulum Question,        »        -        -        -  65 

IX.     Applying  Some  Efficiency  Tests  -        -  72 

X.     First  Things   First.     The   Equipment 

Test, 80 

XI.     Achieving  the  Religious  Purpose.    The 

Life  Test, -  91 

XII.     Order  and  Discipline.     The  Organiza- 
tion Test, 102 

XIII.  Music  and  Worship,       -        -        -        -  111 

XIV.  Efficiency  in  the  Critical  Years,    -  118 

vii 


CONTENTS 

Chapter,  Pack. 

XV.     Church    and    Sunday    School.       A 

Glance  into  the  Future,       -        -     142 

XVI.     The  Extension  Work  of  the  School,     149 

XVII.     Neglected   Aspects   of   Manual 

Work, 159 

XVIII.     Making  the  Lesson  Real,     -        -         166 

XIX.     Advantages  Inventoried,         -        -     171 

XX.     The  Parents  at  School,        -        ~  176 

XXI.     The    Adult    Department    and    the 

Home, 181 

XXII.     The  Rural  Sunday  School,  -  191 

XXIII.  The   Rural   School   and    Its    Com- 

munity,      202 

XXIV.  The   City   School    and   the   Rural 

School,        -----         212 

XXV.     The    Present    Opportunity    in 

Teacher  Training,  -        _         -     217 

XXVI.     Making  Your  Experts  at  Home,  -         224 

XXVII.     The  Teacher's  Tool  Chest,      -        -     230 

XXVIII.     Public    Opinion    and    the    Sunday 

School, 242 


Vlll 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 


CHAPTER  I 

THE   EFFICIENT    SUNDAY    SCHOOL 

Efficiency  involves  three  elements:  intelligence, 
ability,  and  energy,  so  related  and  organized  as 
most  economically  to  produce  the  largest  desired 
effects. 

An  efficient  Sunday  school  is  one  in  which  the 
working  forces  understand  its  purpose  or  aim,  its 
conditions  and  materials  of  operation,  and  its 
methods  of  procedure ;  one  in  which  duties  are  so 
assigned  and  responsibilities  so  clearly  divided 
that  its  operations  proceed  with  economy  of  effort 
and  without  waste  or  friction;  one  in  which  there 
is  the  application  of  all  possible  working  forces 
and  the  enlistment  of  every  aid  available  to  se- 
cure desired  results;  one  in  which  those  who  be- 
lieve they  work  with  God  will  so  work  that  all  His 
work  can  proceed  without  hindrance  and  with  cer- 
tainty of  results.  An  efficient  Sunday  school  is 
one  which  succeeds  in  developing  most  easily  and 
completely  Christian  character  in  its  people,  both 
students  and  workers.  An  efficient  Sunday  school 
develops  efficient  Christians. 

We  hear  much  in  these  days  of  *^ efficiency." 
It  is  a  word  to  conjure  with  and  it  is  a  word  which 

3 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

easily  may  be  worn  smooth,  and  so  become  mean- 
ingless, valueless  in  our  verbal  currency.  We  read 
of  efficiency  in  business  management ;  we  are  told 
that  tlie  ultimate  aim  of  general  education  is 
*^ social  efficiency,''  that  the  test,  like  an  acid  to 
be  applied  to  all  our  public  and  civic  operations, 
is  their  social  or  civic  efficiency.  Now,  there  is 
a  moral,  even  a  spiritual  obligation  resting  on  us 
to  apply  to  all  the  activities  and  organizations  of 
religion  like  tests.  No  church  has  a  moral  right 
to  cumber  the  ground  and  to  draw  support  from 
men  unless  it  is  developing  efficiency  to  do  its 
work.  The  church  that  does  not  give  back  to  the 
world  more  than  it  gets  out  of  it  is  guilty  of  being 
an  ^^unprofitable  servant''  and  in  the  light  of 
the  great  test  of  all  the  Master's  servants  is  con- 
demned to  be  **cast  out."  From  all  the  Lord  of 
all  looks  for  fruitage,  for  increase,  and  demands 
of  us  efficiency  in  doing  our  work  so  as  to  produce 
this  increase.  This  is  the  law  of  the  universe. 
That  which  does  not  grow  and  increase  is  already 
dying  and  has  no  claim  on  life. 

THE   ECONOMIC    DEMAND 

The  criticism  of  the  ** world"  against  the 
church  is  directed  fully  as  much  against  its  work- 
ing ability  as  against  its  opinions.  The  church  is 
in  the  world  to  save  the  world,  and  the  man  who 
stands  without  complains  that  she  is  not  doing  it. 
His  criticism  may  not  have  scientific  grounds,  but 
we  owe  it  to  ourselves  to  apply  the  test  and  ask, 

4 


THE  EFFICIENT  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

**Is  the  Sunday  school  doing  the  work  which  it 
is  designed  to  dof 

When  we  think  of  the  Sunday  school  it  ought 
to  bring  to  mind  the  immense  human  investment 
for  which  it  stands.  Thousands  of  lives  are  sink- 
ing their  best  energies  into  it  year  after  year. 
For  over  a  century  it  has  been  increasingly  de- 
manding the  very  best  people  of  the  churches  and 
the  very  best  of  their  thought,  energy,  and  affec- 
tion. It  costs  human  treasure  and  human  blood 
to  run  a  Sunday  school.  On  the  ground  of  social 
obligation  alone,  when  society  stands  and  sees 
people  pouring  themselves  into  this  institution, 
society  has  a  clear  right  to  ask  whether  the  returns 
justify  the  investment.  Do  our  Sunday  schools 
pay?  Do  they  give  back  to  this  world  more  than 
the  world  of  men  and  women  who  love  them  and 
work  in  them  give?  Do  they  give  back  to  child 
life  more  than  child  life  gives  to  them?  The 
school  asks  for  at  least  an  hour  out  of  every  week 
in  the  child's  life;  does  it  pay  the  child  back? 

But  how  shall  it  pay  back?  What  can  the 
school  give  to  the  child,  and  what  must  the  school 
give  to  society  that  shall  be  in  any  adequate  de- 
gree a  return  for  all  the  investment  made  in  it? 
It  must  give  back,  just  as  the  farm  gives  back 
for  seed  and  tilling  and  toil,  its  own  product.  The 
product  of  this  institution,  that  for  which  all  the 
investment  is  made,  is  just  this:  lives  guided  to 
know  and  motived  to  live  the  Christian  life,  and 
trained  to  serve  Christian  ideals  and  to  cause  the 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

conditions  of  Christian  living  to  prevail  in  society. 
A  Sunday  school  bas  to  train  lives  to  Christian 
living  and  to  make  them  effective  agencies  for 
causing  the  condition  of  the  Kingdom  to  come, 
to  so  educate  youth  that  it  may  become  increas- 
ingly easy  for  each  new  generation  to  live 
the  right  life  and  increasingly  hard  to  walk  the 
wrong  way.  The  test  of  th6  efficiency  of  a  Sunday 
school  is  just  here :  are  the  people  who  have  come 
out  of  it,  who  constitute  now  the  society  in  which 
it  exists,  primarily  motived  by  Christian  ideals; 
are  those  whom  it  has  trained  turning  to  the  serv- 
ice of  the  Kingdom  and  giving  to  it  trained  lives? 
Does  the  school  really  make  Kingdom  men  and 
Kingdom  conditions? 

THE   TEST   OF   THE   SCHOOL 

The  test  of  education  will  be  educated  persons 
and  educated  communities.  The  test  is  not  in  in- 
stitutions, but  in  their  products;  not  in  school 
buildings  nor  in  university  halls,  but  in  people. 
No  matter  what  the  machinery  of  education  may 
have  to  exhibit,  if  it  cannot  show  people  who 
have  learned  how  to  live  and  who  do  live  right, 
who  do  live  nobly  and  in  harmony,  who  by  their 
living  and  service  make  a  better  and  a  finer  social 
order,  it  has  failed.  So  is  it  with  the  Sunday 
school :  the  test  of  efficiency  is  not  in  organization, 
architecture,  or  curricula — all  of  these  must  be 
studied  and  must  be  ordered  aright — but  the  ulti- 
mate test  is  whether  in  this  specific  agency  of  re- 

6 


THE  EFFICIENT  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

ligious  education  people  have  learned  to  live  re- 
ligiously, to  live  in  the  terms  of  the  great  Teacher, 
to  take  life  as  the  sublime  chance  to  love  and 
serve,  whether  people  have  been  moved  to  make 
the  new  world  of  which  they  learned,  whether  the 
community  is  really  more  heavenly,  a  place  where 
it  is  easier  for  all  to  go  right  and  harder  for 
any  to  go  wrong. 

Such  a  statement  leaves  out  for  the  present 
the  consideration  of  the  divine  co-operation,  be- 
cause we  may  be  assured  that  if  we  will  do  our 
work  rightly  and  submit  it  to  the  great  tests 
of  life,  the  tests  which  the  Master  Himself  set, 
there  will  be  no  question  as  to  the  co-operation 
that  is  from  above. 

OUR   NEW   OPPORTUNITrES 

But  efficiency  must  be  tested  in  the  light  of 
opportunity.  Do  we  realize  that  this  very  day 
offers  the  largest  opportunity  the  Sunday  school 
has  ever  had?  Our  right  to  live  is  to  be  tested 
by  whether  we  have  entered  into  and  possessed 
in  any  worthy  way  the  vast  realm  of  present-day 
opportunities.  To-day  is  the  Sunday  school's  edu- 
cational opportunity.  Sometimes  reviewing  the 
striking  changes  that  have  taken  place  in  the  Sun- 
day schools  in  the  last  decade,  we  say  to  ourselves, 
with  graded  lessons  and  teacher-training  in  mind, 
*'What  strides  this  school  has  made!''  But  when 
we  apply  a  test  and  measure  Sunday  school  prog- 
ress by  comparison,  the  advance  of  the  church  in 

7 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

her  educational  agencies  with  the  advance  of  the 
general  agencies  of  education,  we  stand  dumb, 
ashamed,  obliged  to  confess  that  relatively  we 
have  almost  stood  still.  And  the  saddest  thing  of 
all  is  the  fact  that  we  have  stood  still  in  the  very- 
hour  of  our  most  splendid  opportunity.  Instead 
of  the  Sunday  school  having  become  obsolete  or 
unnecessary,  she  has  now  come  within  sight  of 
her  true  social  mission.  Stop  to  think  of  certain 
things  concerning  which  we  are  all  pretty  well 
agreed.  First,  that  there  can  be  no  formal  teach- 
ing of  religion,  of  the  Bible,  or  of  theology,  in  the 
public  schools ;  second,  that  the  public  school  has 
the  mission  of  preparing  lives  for  social  suffi- 
ciency, that  is,  preparing  them  for  rendering  full 
service  to  society;  third,  that  no  one  can  possibly 
be  sufficient  for  modem  social  living  without  the 
religious  motive,  that  education  can  never  accom- 
plish her  perfect  work  without  religion.  Are  we 
not  now  generally  agreed  on  these  things'?  To 
what  agency,  then,  shall  we  turn  for  this  abso- 
lutely indispensable  element  in  education  since  the 
public  schools  cannot  formally  teach  religion? 
True,  there  may  be  much  religious  education  with- 
out the  formal  teaching  of  religious  subjects.  We 
must  not  think  of  public  schools  as  irreligious; 
there  is  nowhere  in  any  country  a  finer  body  of 
religious  teachers  than  our  public  school  educa- 
tors. The  lessons  in  the  public  school  class  room, 
the  influence,  discipline,  and  training  all  count  for 
the  training  of  the  life  of  the  spirit.    We  need 

8 


THE  EFFICIENT  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

to  magnify  the  spiritual  values  of  what  we  call 
secular  education. 

Yet  the  growing  lives  of  youth  in  the  school 
days  need  more  than  influence,  atmosphere,  and 
ideals ;  they  need  specific  instruction.  They  need 
education  designed  for  directed  religious  growth. 
The  boy  needs  that  which  the  Bible  has  for  the 
purposes  of  life,  a  heritage  of  ideals  expressed 
in  the  eloquence  of  the  soul  and  enshrined  in  great 
and  glowing  lives.  If  he  would  follow  the  most 
glorious  of  all  lives  he  must  know  that  life,  and 
he  needs  some  vision  of  the  ideals  that  shone  be- 
fore that  life.  He  needs,  too,  that  this  social  in- 
stitution of  the  church  shall  have  a  special  edu- 
cational significance  for  him,  that  it  shall  minister 
to  his  needs  as  truly  as  do  the  other  institutions, 
the  school  and  the  home.  Here  is  the  great  op- 
portunity of  the  school  of  the  church,  the  Sunday 
school,  to  do  what  no  other  school  may  or  can  do,  to 
impart  to  the  life,  directly,  intentionally,  and  with 
all  the  freedom  of  a  clear  purpose  and  the  force 
of  personal  authority,  tradition,  custom,  and  af- 
fection, the  impulses,  ideals,  and  motives  of  the 
true  social  life.  If  education  is  for  purposes  of 
social  efiiciency,  the  church  has  the  specific  mis- 
sion of  furnishing  to  every  life  the  only  sufficient 
motive,  the  religious  motive,  the  motive  of  self- 
giving  love  and  service,  the  motive  that  has 
moved  every  great  soul  through  all  the  ages,  that 
stands  out  above  all  the  blood  and  lust  of  ancient 
Hebrew  legends,  above  all  the  intricacies  of  Jew- 

9 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

ish.  ritual,  above  all  the  controversies  of  Chris- 
tian speculation  and  metaphysics,  that  the  most 
glorious  thing  in  the  world  is  to  give  up  life  for 
the  world,  to  live  for  others,  that  the  finer,  fuller, 
and  more  efficient  the  life  so  lived,  the  greater 
the  sacrifice  and  glory  of  living. 

The  greatest  need  in  education  to-day  is  such 
a  vision  of  life's  purposes  as  will  furnish  a  clear 
program  for  the  training  of  lives  and  a  com- 
pelling passion  for  its  realization.  We  need  mo- 
tives most  of  all,  motives  high  enough  for  all  to 
move  in  with  perfect  freedom,  large  enough  to 
satisfy  all  the  soul  of  man,  deep  enough  to  stir 
us  to  our  depths  and  to  lead  us  out  to  our  best. 
The  business  of  the  Sunday  school  is  to  impart 
to  lives  the  sufficient  motives  and  the  methods 
of  the  right  life. 

Definitely,  specifically,  and  not  uncertainly  the 
Sunday  school  has  an  educational  mission. 


10 


CHAPTEE  II 

DELUSIVE  DEFINITIONS 

The  hearing  annually  of  literally  hundreds  of 
public  addresses  on  the  subject  of  the  Sunday 
school  is  in  itself  a  surprising  revelation  of  the 
forces  acting  to  retard  the  development  of  the 
school.  One  is  at  first  interested,  then  surprised, 
and  later  depressed  by  the  reiteration  of  three 
sadly  misleading  conceptions  of  the  school;  the 
conviction  grows  that  these  three  current  miscon- 
ceptions, prevailing  often  in  the  minds  of  those 
who  are  called  to  leadership  and  by  them  held 
blindly  and  even  enthusiastically,  constitute  the 
most  serious  obstacles  to  the  efficiency  of  the 
school  in  its  work  of  religious  education. 

When  a  speaker  incidentally  defines  an  insti- 
tution he  unconsciously  gives  expression  to  his 
own  working  principles  regarding  that  institu- 
tion. Your  definition  of  a  man  determines  very 
largely  how  you  will  order  your  life  as  a  man. 
The  most  serious  question  in  the  Sunday  school 
world  is  this,  What  is  the  Sunday  school  for? 
We  never  shall  be  able  to  direct  or  organize  the 
school  until  we  know  what  we  would  do  with  it. 
If  you  are  organizing  a  factory,  it  makes  all  the 
difference  in  the  world  whether  a  factory  is  an 

11 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

institution  to  make  things  or  to  cause  things  to 
grow;  and  then,  granted  the  former,  it  makes  a 
tremendous  difference  as  to  the  things  you  would 
make  in  that  factory,  whether  it  is  an  automobile 
factory  or  a  shirt  factory.  It  makes  no  less  dif- 
ference whether  you  think  of  the  Sunday  school 
aright.  The  three  misconceptions  one  hears  most 
frequently  are  the  more  dangerous  because  each 
one  has  a  rather  important  element  of  truth. 

NOT  A  RECRUITING  STATION 

Did  you  ever  hear  the  Sunday  school  described 
as  the  recruiting  agency  of  the  church?  Doubt- 
less. The  important  truth  involved  in  that  state- 
ment lay  in  the  fact  that  it  is  through  the  Sunday 
school,  more  largely,  more  naturally  and  prop- 
erly, that  the  personal  strength,  the  membership 
of  the  church  is  maintained.  But  the  figure  of  a 
recruiting  station  contradicts  the  essential  under 
which  the  Sunday  school  maintains  the  personal 
life  of  the  church.  A  recruiting  station  has  to 
do  only  with  those  not  yet  enlisted;  its  only  con- 
cern is  with  the  numbers  to  be  enrolled;  it  has 
no  responsibility  to  train,  drill,  educate  the  sol- 
diery. Like  limitations  are  evidently  in  the  minds 
of  the  speakers  who  seem  to  love  this  figure,  for 
they  go  on  to  emphasize  the  importance  of  en- 
rollment; they  fairly  revel  in  the  book  of  num- 
bers; they  insist  that  the  success  of  the  Sunday 
school  is  to  be  measured  by  its  size.  They  are 
under  the  spell  of  the  damaging,  deterrent  delu- 

12 


DELUSIVE  DEFINITIONS 

sion  of  bigness.  Here  is  the  most  serious  fault 
with  organized  Sunday  school  forces;  they  care 
more  for  numerical  effect  than  for  efficiency ;  they 
urge  on  all  Sunday  school  workers  the  "boom'* 
propaganda.  The  great  thing  desired  seems  to  be 
to  work  up  enthusiasm  sufficient  to  draw  in  every 
child  in  the  neighbourhood;  beyond  that  they 
have  no  definite  program.  Like  recruiting  ser- 
geants, they  are  after  names  only.  It  is  true  that 
every  child  ought  to  be  in  Sunday  school,  just 
as  it  is  true  that  every  one  ought  to  be  in  the 
public  school,  but  either  school  has  a  right  to 
make  that  demand,  either  morally  or  legally,  only 
in  the  measure  that  it  makes  it  worth  more  to 
the  child  to  attend  than  to  stay  away.  Children 
ought  not  to  attend  a  "school"  that  does  not 
really  teach,  or  one  that  by  its  disorder  and  in- 
efficiency is  teaching  lawlessness  and  disrespect. 
It  is  wrong  even  to  persuade  children  to  go  to 
your  school  until  you  have  seriously  provided  for 
its  efficiency.  A  mob  is  not  a  school.  To  put  all 
your  emphasis  on  gathering  the  raw  material 
without  a  thought  of  organizing  the  institution 
which  is  to  handle  that  material  is  not  only  folly, 
it  is  a  positive  wickedness  toward  that  raw  ma- 
terial of  life. 

KOT    THE    children's    CHURCH 

Then,  have  you  never  heard  it  said  that  the 
Sunday  school  is  the  children's  church?  The  im- 
portant underlying  truth  is  that  what  the  church 

13 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

is  to  the  adult,  that  in  a  large  measure  the  school 
ought  to  be  to  the  child.  But  the  capital  error 
lies  in  making  the  figure  go  on  all  fours.  We 
carelessly  suppose  that  the  children's  church 
must  be  no  other  than  the  adult's  church  trimmed 
down  to  fit  the  child.  The  prevalence  of  this 
notion  accounts  for  the  fact  that  we  have  the 
hour  of  Sunday  school  modeled  precisely  on  the 
period  of  church  worship.  First  come  the  *  ^  open- 
ing exercises,"  usually  the  baldest  imitation  of 
the  opening  numbers  of  the  order  of  worship  in 
the  church,  even  to  the  *4ong  prayer,"  and  the 
reading  of  the  Scriptures ;  this  is  followed  by  the 
substitute  for  the  sermon  in  at  least  many  cases, 
the  teachers  each  preaching,  from  a  somewhat 
lengthy  text  called  the  lesson,  to  their  several 
small  congregations.  To  complete  the  imitation, 
the  superintendent  preaches  another  small  ser- 
mon at  the  close,  and  the  school  is  duly  dis- 
missed with  the  benediction,  usually  after  being 
invited  to  go  through  the  same  program  again 
in  the  church  service  proper.  Such  a  state  of 
affairs  exists  in  part  because  the  officers  yield 
to  the  inclination  to  play  the  preacher,  but  more 
because  no  one  has  stopped  to  think  of  the  folly 
of  it  all.  The  religious  life  of  a  child  is  not  the 
same  as  that  of  a  man.  A  boy's  religion  is  not 
a  man's  cut  down.  If  the  school  is  the  children's 
church,  then  its  life  and  activities  must  be  those 
normal  to  a  child.  The  school  should  stand  for 
the  child's  normal,   developing  relation  to  the 

14 


DELUSIVE  DEFINITIONS 

church;  it  should  extend  its  functions  and  sphere 
through  the  week  to  maintain  that  relation  con- 
tinuously and  should  devote  the  Sunday  period 
much  more  exclusively  to  the  work  of  teaching. 
As  it  is,  heedlessly  imitating  the  church  service 
and  feeling  a  freedom  not  found  therein,  we  usu- 
ally excite  the  children  to  the  top  notch  of  fervid 
restlessness,  or  at  least  we  try  to  do  so  by  urging 
them  to  sing  more  and  more  heartily,  etc.,  and 
then  suddenly  demand  the  impossible,  that  they 
shall  immediately  subside  into  the  quiet,  receptive 
mood  for  teaching.  In  an  important  sense  the 
Sunday  school  is  at  least  a  part  of  the  children's 
church,  but  it  should  never  be  an  imitation  church 
for  children. 

NOT    A    THEOLOGICAL    SEMINARY 

Then,  have  you  heard  this  school  described  as 
''a  miniature  theological  seminary F^^  That  ridic- 
ulous phrase  is  before  me  in  print,  given  cur- 
rency by  a  denominational  Sunday  school  official. 
The  hidden  truth  is  that  the  school  does  teach 
the  systematized  knowledge  of  the  Christian  life, 
but  the  misleading  and  damaging  conception  is 
that  this  school  exists  to  impart  to  the  young,  in 
condensed  form,  in  miniature,  precisely  that  body 
of  knowledge  which  experience  iudges  to  be  neci's- 
sary  to  the  preacher's  professional  preparpiion. 
It  has  in  mind  a  ''body  of  kiiowledge,"  as  it  used 
to  be  called,  which  the  preacher  mu-^t  Kive  un- 
abridged, which  the  people  must  have  m  the  vest- 

15 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

pocket  size,  the  school  as  the  one  agency  to  give 
this  to  the  people,  and  youth  the  one  period  to 
get  it.  Hence  the  school  exists  for  the  sake  of  the 
knowledge  and  not  for  the  sake  of  character,  for 
the  curriculum  and  not  for  the  child.  The  ghosts 
of  educational  traditions  have  always  insisted 
there  were  certain  things  we  ought  to  know,  no- 
body knew  why.  The  curriculum  of  this  school 
is  still  largely  determined  by  the  theological  ideal. 
Wise  men  have  said.  Here  are  the  things  that 
religious  people  ought  to  know ;  the  next  question 
is-,  In  what  order  shall  we  teach  them?  But  this 
school  does  not  exist  for  the  professional,  philo- 
sophical, philological,  archaBological,  nor  literary 
ends ;  it  exists  for  life  purposes.  The  only  reason 
these  children  should  know  any  of  these  things 
is  that  they  will  vitally  contribute  to  their  spir- 
itual heritage,  that  they  will  quicken  their  spir- 
itual development,  and  will  lead  them  to  efficiency 
in  religious  living  and  service.  This  is  the  one 
agency  in  our  life  to-day  which  can  be  properly 
regarded  as  specifically  the  school  of  the  religious 
life.  Its  business  is  to  lead  youth  to  competency 
for  rich,  full,  efficient  Christian  living. 

For  a  change,  suppose  we  were  to  try  to  work 
out  a  conception  of  the  school  based  on  thisi. 
definition:  the  Sunday  school  as  the  school  of  the 
chui-fh  in  the  Christian  life.  Then  ask,  What 
workers,  type  of  organization,  and  equipment 
wu^ild  tiuai  involve?  IVhat  materials  of  instruc- 
tion, what  kinds  of  stimuli,  and  what  forms  of 

16 


DELUSIVE  DEFINITIONS 

work  would  developing  Christian  lives  need  at 
their  respective  stages  of  development  and  in 
view  of  the  demands  made  upon  life  to-day? 
And,  what  motives  for  support,  co-operation,  and 
enlistment  or  study  would  such  a  school  be  able 
to  offer? 


17 


CHAPTER  III 

A  CHURCH  STANDARD  FOE  ITS  SCHOOL 

If  we  recognize  the  Sunday  school  as  the  school 
of  the  church  for  the  religious  life,  we  next  pro- 
ceed to  discover  the  means  by  which  we  may  in- 
sure all  the  church  people  receiving  the  benefits 
of  the  system  of  religious  education  designed  by 
the  church. 

The  Northern  Baptist  Convention  recently 
adopted  this  statement:  ''Every  member  as  a 
learner  in  the  school  of  Christ  should  teach  or  he 
taught  in  the  educational  work  of  the  church,' ' 
as  the  standard  for  local  churches  in  their  rela- 
tion to  their  Sunday  schools. 

Efficiency  is  ability  to  secure  effects.  The 
effect  of  the  work  of  a  church  ought  to  be  a  re- 
generated community  realizing  the  Christ  ideal 
in  personal  character  and  social  conditions.  The 
matter  of  efficiency  is  our  immediate  concern,  our 
imperative  responsibility;  if  we  attend  to  effi- 
ciency, He  whom  we  serve  will  care  for  our  suf- 
ficiency. 

If  we  agree  that  the  effect  sought  by  the 
church  is    the   development   of   Christian   char- 

18 


A  CHURCH  STANDARD  FOR  ITS  SCHOOL 

acter  and  the  prevalence  of  a  Christian  civiliza- 
tion, there  can  be  no  doubt  or  question  as  to 
the  place  of  this  particular  article  or  aim  in  a 
statement  of  church  standards  of  efficiency. 
Christian  character  comes  not  in  some  roseate 
flush  of  visionary  hopes,  not  in  some  pulsation 
of  emotion,  not  in  the  glow  and  thrill  of  recog- 
nizing our  spiritual  ideals  afar  off.  It  grows; 
it  develops.  Its  processes  are  suggested  in  the 
Teacher's  illustration  from  the  flowers  of  the 
field,  ** Consider  the  lilies,  how  they  grow.'*  It 
comes  not  by  toiling;  the  strenuous  endeavor 
alone  will  not  win  that  fullness  of  being;  neither 
will  it  come  by  outer  adorning,  spinning  fine  gar- 
ments for  your  wearing.  Developing  that  life 
which  stands  and  serves  in  all  the  measure  of 
the  fullness  of  the  stature  of  the  Master  and 
bringing  about  that  Kingdom  in  which  His  will 
is  done  is  a  slow  process,  yet  a  sure  one,  la. 
steady  and  dependable  one  whenever  the  un- 
changing laws  of  the  Infinite  are  obeyed.  It  is 
an  educational  process.  It  is  governed  by  the 
laws  of  education,  the  divine  and  eternal  prin- 
ciples of  growth  and  adaptation  under  appro- 
priate nurture  and  stimuli. 

EDUCATION    AND   THE    MISSIONARY    SPIRIT 

The  educational  work  of  a  church  is  wider 
and  more  important  than  her  activities  of  in- 
struction; it  includes  every  effort  specifically  di- 
rected to  the  systematic  development  of  Chris- 

19 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

tian  personality.  Let  no  man  say  to  himself, 
**This  educational  business  must  be  left  to  the 
educators ;  as  for  me,  I  cannot  teach ;  I  'm  not 
a  professor  or  a  school  teacher.''  No  matter 
Vvhat  you  are  you  cannot  escape  the  obligation 
to  use  the  agencies  and  potencies  of  the  gospel 
in  stimulating,  inspiring,  aiding,  directing  others 
to  the  enjoyment  of  the  life  that  you  have  as 
a  Christian.  No  man  has  the  spirit  of  Jesus 
unless  he  has  the  educational  spirit,  the  burn- 
ing hope  and  desire  that  men  should  come  into 
the  fullness  of  life,  that  they  should  have  all 
the  life  that  is  theirs  as  the  children  of  the 
Most  High.  At  heart  the  educational  spirit  and 
the  missionary  spirit  are  one;  both  rejoice  in  a 
life  that  is  daily  renewed  into  greater  power  and 
beauty,  and  both  passionately  desire  that  all 
others  should  have  this  life  and  grow  into  its 
grace.  In  an  important  sense  the  educational 
spirit  is  a  test  of  the  reality  of  your  religion. 
Does  your  religion  mean  growth,  development 
into  harmony,  eJBficiency  and  fullness  of  character 
to  you,  and  do  you  most  earnestly  desire  and 
labour  for  like  development  in  all  others  I 

There  is  no  more  important  aim  or  ideal  of 
efficiency  for  any  church  than  the  one  standing  at 
the  head  of  this  chapter ;  the  vitality  and  the  very 
continued  existence  of  the  churches  depend  on 
it.  If  we  fail  to  educate— train,  guide,  habituate, 
inspire — men  and  women  into  Christian  char- 
acter we  fail  utterly.     In  all  the  criticisms  of 

20 


A  CHUECH  STANDARD  FOR  ITS  SCHOOL 

the  churches,  in  all  the  host  of  foolish  demands 
which  the  world  makes,  that  world  is  right  at 
the  point  where  insistence  is  most  marked  and 
most  common;  that  is,  that  the  churches  shall 
give  to  the  world  good  men  and  women,  people 
who  know  how  to  live  and  who  actually  do  live 
according  to  the  noblest  ideals.  Our  pride  is 
our  shame  if  we  can  point  only  to  long  lists  of 
names,  exhaustless  financial  resources,  intricate 
and  often  bewildering  ecclesiastical  machinery, 
or  any  other  of  the  tools  and  trappings  of  our 
task.  The  world  asks  for,  and  the  world  dies 
for  the  lack  of  our  real  product,  boys  and  girls 
gTowing  up  into  active,  efficient,  divinely  mo- 
tived, man-loving  and  Kingdom-serving  manhood 
and  womanhood.  That  is  the  educational  task 
of  every  church.  It  is  a  task  to  be  accomplished 
by  learning,  coming  to  know  and  love  and  habit- 
ually to  follow  the  way,  to  walk  in  the  fellow- 
ship of  the  right  life.  The  learning  is  by  many 
means,  by  lessons  in  classes  and  out  of  books, 
truly,  but  also  by  customs,  habits,  associations, 
duties,  service,  joys  and  sorrows,  emotional  ex- 
periences. The  agencies  in  the  church  are  the 
Sunday  school,  services,  worship,  directed  activ- 
ities and  service,  organized  study  and  play. 

COMING  TO  THE  STANDAED 

How  shall  a  church  attain  this  standard? 
First,  by  a  clear  understanding  on  the  part  of 
her  pastor,  and  then  of  all  her  people,  as  to  just 

21 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

what  the  educational  activities  of  the  church  may 
be.  Let  a  simple  statement  be  made,  a  list  of 
the  opportunities  in  the  church.  Be  sure  they 
include  more  than  the  instructional  work,  more 
than  schools  and  classes.  Let  the  list  include 
all  that  is  specifically  designed  to  develop  Chris- 
tian character  systematically  by  educational 
means.  The  preparation  of  such  a  list  will  often 
reveal  the  paucity  of  provision  in  the  church 
for  the  direct  accomplishment  of  her  real  task. 
It  should  also  lead  to  a  study  of  the  degree  to 
which  such  provision  is  adequate  for  the  ages 
and  stages  of  development  in  her  people,  for 
the  types  of  temperament,  for  the  types  of  racial, 
social,  and  personal  development,  and  for  the 
economic  needs  of  all. 

Next  will  come  a  distribution  of  the  people 
of  the  church  among  the  educational  activities. 
The  children  will  be  assigned  to  the  Sunday 
school  and  to  their  various  clubs  and  other 
groups.  Of  course,  every  endeavour  necessary 
should  be  used  until  parents  co-operate  heartily 
with  church  officers  to  see  that  every  child  is 
enrolled  in  the  school  of  the  church.  A  simple 
and  wholly  legitimate  aim  here  would  be  that 
every  person,  under  eighteen  years  of  age,  should 
be  enrolled  in  the  school,  either  studying  on  Sun- 
day or  in  a  class  meeting  during  the  week. 

But  just  here  is  the  place  to  suggest  a  warn- 
ing or  to  enter  a  protest.  Only  childish  short- 
sightedness can  account  for  the  slogan,  **Every- 

22 


A  CHIJECH  STANDARD  FOR  ITS  SCHOOL 

body  in  the  Sunday  school  1''  The  Sunday  school 
is  a  school,  an  institution  for  instruction;  but 
instruction  in  classes  is  not  the  only  means  for 
the  development  of  the  Christian  life,  nor  is  it  the 
best  and  normal  method  for  the  greater  number 
of  persons.  All  need  the  knowledge  of  the  way 
of  hf  e,  all  need  to  study  the  Bible,  but  there  ought 
to  come  a  time  when  the  formal  study  of  the  Bible 
in  classes  is  completed.  Men  and  women  ought 
to  graduate  from  the  Sunday  school,  but  not  from 
the  school  of  the  church.  We  ask  too  much  when 
we  insist  that  all  our  men  and  women  shall  come 
to  Sunday  school,  attend  church  service,  perhaps 
help  in  Junior  and  Senior  Endeavour,  attend  even- 
ing service,  and  stay  to  after-meeting  or  to  a 
business  session.  That  is  to  make  Sunday  exist 
for  the  church  instead  of  for  the  man.  Some 
adults,  many  in  some  churches,  ought  to  be  free 
from  all  responsibility  for  the  Sunday  hour  of 
instruction  because  they  have  undertaken  other 
definite  duties  on  that  day.  Again,  we  ask  un- 
wisely when  we  insist  that  high  school  students 
and  college  students  shall  ^'bone'*  for  the  Sunday 
school,  just  as  they  have  been  ''boning''  for  their 
other  schools  all  the  week.  If  they  are  earnest 
students  they  are  carrying  enough  studies  as  it 
is;  their  normal  place  in  the  school  would  be 
either  in  teaching  or,  better  yet,  in  service  as 
officers.  Are  they  to  be  exempt  from  this  stand- 
ard then?  By  no  means.  Our  task  is  to  find  that 
place  in  which  they  may  either  *' teach  or  be 

23 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

taught'^  without  making  the  life  of  the  church 
seem  only  an  added  burden  or  a  weak  imitation 
of  their  ulterior  educational  experience.  Within 
the  school  these  people  can  always  find  oppor- 
tunities, besides  teaching  and  service,  in  which 
they  will  delight.  They  will  flock  to  any  leader 
or  teacher  who  will  freely  and  honestly  discuss 
their  big  questions,  meet  their  doubts  and  specu- 
lations, and  let  them  give  vent  to  their  often  vol- 
canic and  explosive  feelings  and  ideas.  Outside 
the  school  how  manifold  are  the  opportunities  of 
service  for  youth!  They  rejoice  in  service;  they 
will  do  things.  To  do  anything  in  a  fitting  way 
for  a  high  ideal  is  to  develop  oneself,  is  to  be 
taught.  To  give  the  cup  of  cold  water  in  His 
name  is  to  sit  in  His  school.  The  wise  pastor 
sees  to  it  that  there  is  a  chance  for  every  one 
of  his  people  to  learn  by  helping  others,  by  put- 
ting on  the  apron  and  taking  up  the  tools  of 
divine  service.  He  tests  the  educational  work  of 
the  church,  not  by  the  Sunday  school  secretary's 
report,  but  by  the  measure  in  which  the  church 
is  furnishing  appropriate  stimulus  to  every  life. 

YOUTH  IN  THE  CHURCH 

Provision  for  the  life  of  youth,  these  people  of 
the  middle  period  of  adolescence,  is  still  the  big  ed- 
ucational problem  of  our  church.  How  does  a  lad 
of  eighteen  grow  in  Christian  character?  There 
is  our  basic  question.  First,  through  friendship, 
through  association  with  persons  in  groups  and, 

24 


A  CHURCH  STANDARD  FOR  ITS  SCHOOL 

most  of  all,  through  the  power  of  distinctive  per- 
sonalities. Vain  all  our  courses  no  matter  how 
well  planned,  vain  all  our  organization  and  ap- 
paratus, all  our  academic  fuss  and  feathers,  if 
these  young  men  and  women  are  not  finding  in 
the  church  and  in  her  school  dominating,  inspir- 
ing personalities.  Scarcely  any  of  the  older  men 
remember  what  the  great  Professor  Blackie 
taught,  but  none  has  ever  ceased  to  feel  what  he 
was.  What  provision  have  you  in  your  church 
for  youth's  hunger  for  personified  ideals,  for 
potent  personality?  You  can  doubtless  get  a 
phonograph  to  teach  the  bare  facts  about  Isaiah; 
you  will  need  a  splendid  personality  to  make 
youth  feel  his  force  and  aspire  to  his  faith.  Next, 
youth  grows  through  what  it  does.  No  church 
is  really  seeking  to  realize  this  item  of  the  stand- 
ard of  efficiency  unless  it  is  seeking  to  find  a  task 
for  every  young  man  and  young  woman,  patiently 
learning  their  dispositions  and  aptitudes  and 
training  them  to  take  places  of  responsibility.  If 
only  some  church  officers  would  learn  the  grace 
of  resignation  and  give  some  of  the  younger  ones 
a  chance  to  learn  the  joy  of  service !  Here  is  the 
school  where  our  men  must  learn  in  youth  loyalty 
and  love  for  the  church. 

WOBK  FOB  ADULTS 

And  what  of  the  adults?  Is  it  possible  to 
arrange  that  they  shall  all  either  ^' teach  or  be 
taught r*    Yes;  they  have  work  to  do  which,  if 

25 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

they  attempt  it  honestly,  they  dare  not  carry  on 
without  being  taught.  The  need  of  the  church  is 
trained  workers.  The  church  must  educate  her 
own  people  to  do  her  work.  An  efficient  church 
is  simply  an  organized  group  of  efficient  persons 
and  the  efficiency  of  the  whole  depends  on  the 
education  of  the  unit  But  there  are  things  to 
** teach  or  be  taught"  going  back  of  this  and 
more  radically  important.  Our  very  civilization 
depends  on  whether  our  people  are  educated  to 
religious  living.  All  our  modem  problems  go 
back  to  roots  in  personal  character,  and  personal 
character  traces  more  roots  in  the  home  than  any- 
where else.  Let  all  who  are  parents  pledge  them- 
selves to  teach  their  own  children,  to  set  aside 
periods  in  the  home  for  this  duty.  That  will 
lead  the  parents  inevitably  to  the  need  of  study. 
Let  the  church  offer  classes  for  their  instruction 
in  the  duties  of  Christian  parenthood,  in  making 
Christian  homes,  becoming  Christian  neighbours, 
and  training  Christian  children.  The  periods  and 
means  of  such  study  must  be  planned  with  care, 
having  in  mind  the  habits  and  needs  of  parents 
as  students.  We  can  not  insist  that  weary 
mothers  shall  strain  their  nerves  with  the  un- 
wonted exercise  of  a  church  service  and  school 
coupled  together.  Many  will  do  this  and  do  it 
with  ease  and  joy.  Let  those  who  have  the  gifts 
— ^whether  of  endurance  or  of  grace — continue. 
But  those  who  really  suffer  with  the  strain  of  so 
long  attention  will  both  teach  and  learn  no  whit 

26 


A  CHURCH  STANDARD  FOR  ITS  SCHOOL 

the  less  in  other  ways.  The  quiet  afternoon  class 
in  the  week  will  accomplish  much  more  than  the 
hurried  forty  minutes  in  school  on  Sunday,  at 
least  for  many.  This  simply  means  that  in  all 
our  educational  plans  we  have  to  abandon  all 
wholesale  and  factory  methods  if  we  would  reach 
the  desired  goal.  We  have  to  study  persons  and 
to  suit  our  organization  to  actual  conditions  and 
to  the  needs  of  different  groups  and  types  of 
people.  It  cannot  be  accomplished  by  simply 
saying,  ^'Here  is  our  Sunday  school;  everybody 
get  right  in  it  and  either  teach  or  be  taught." 
I  would  not  take  one  jot  from  the  importance 
of  the  school  which  meets  on  Sunday;  I  would 
still  urge  its  supreme  place  in  the  work  of  the 
church,  believing  it  should  be  counted  as  the  most 
fruitful  agency  of  Christian  service.  But  we  need 
a  broader  vision  of  the  educational  work  of  the 
church,  and  we  need  a  more  comprehensive  gauge 
than  that  of  Sunday  school  attendance. 

A  CHUKCH  SCHOOL  BOARD 

What  definite  steps  shall  a  church  take  toward 
this  goal?  First,  organize  a  strong  Board  of 
Religious  Education,  consisting  of  pastor,  Sun- 
day school  superintendent,  heads  of  departments 
in  the  school,  and  others  responsible  for  direct 
instructional  work,  as  directors  of  boys'  clubs,  etc., 
and  also  some  persons  of  broad  educational  inter- 
est. See  that  the  members  of  this  board  get  the 
wider  conception  of  religious  education.     Take 

27 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

pains  to  acquaint  them,  through  the  abundant 
available  literature,  with  recent  developments  and 
present  plans  in  religious  education.  Educate 
your  own  leaders.  Note  that  every  one  of  the 
successful  educational  experiments  in  churches  is 
led  by  a  person  or  persons  inspired  by  the  litera- 
ture of  this  movement  and  identified  with  its  or- 
ganization. 

Second,  take  a  review,  a  survey  of  your  pres- 
ent plans  to  accomplish  the  ends  of  religious  edu- 
cation. In  what  sense  and  in  what  ways  is  your 
church  really  organized  to  systematically  develop 
Christian  character?  Set  everything  down  in 
black  and  white.  Make  a  diagram  of  it  for  your 
board.  This  is  no  waste  of  time.  This  is  the 
method  of  every  business  that  is  doing  business. 
Then  fill  in  the  gaps,  set  down  in  outline  the 
complete  plan. 

PERSONALIZING  YOUR  PARISH 

Third,  over  against  the  list  of  opportunities 
and  activities  in  the  church  (both  those  existing 
and  those  which  ought  to  be  provided  as  a  result 
of  your  study)  set  the  names  of  your  people. 
Having  provided  for  the  children  in  the  Sunday 
school,  see  that  they  are  all  provided  for  also  in 
clubs,  in  recreation  and  social  opportunities 
through  the  week.  Next,  take  the  people  of  your 
membership  and  congregation  one  by  one.  Study 
each  one  until  you  find  just  the  place  in  your 
whole  scheme  of  education  to  which  you  can  urge 

28 


A  CHURCH  STANDARD  FOR  ITS  SCHOOL 

that  one,  if  it  happens  that  he  does  not  have  al- 
ready a  suitable  place  and  duty.  Then,  by  cor- 
respondence, invite  each  one  to  pledge  himself  to 
that  duty  and  opportunity,  giving,  usually,  some 
alternative  for  his  choice.  Follow  up  the  corre- 
spondence personally  or  through  a  member  of 
the  Board  of  Religious  Education,  assigning  cer- 
tain persons  to  each  member  of  the  board. 
Changes  and  adaptations  will  have  to  be  made, 
but  in  the  end  it  will  be  possible  to  have  every 
one  pledged  to  a  certain  place  in  the  educational 
organization  of  the  church.  Such  a  pledge  ought 
to  be  mutually  binding,  respected  by  the  pastor 
as  well  as  by  the  member.  When  a  man  has 
selected  his  duties,  do  not  try  to  load  others  on 
him.  Church  membership  ought  to  mean  a  mutual 
agreement  between  an  individual  and  an  associa- 
tion of  individuals  as  to  the  duties  of  each. 

Some  one  objects:  all  this  takes  more  time 
than  a  busy  pastor  has  to  spare.  Many  pastors 
are  ever  lamenting  that  they  are  too  busy  simply 
because  they  do  not  know  how  to  be  busy;  they 
waste  time  because  they  spend  no  time  in  plan- 
ning work.  Platting  out  a  membership  and  adapt- 
ing persons  and  activities  is  one  of  the  best  labour- 
saving,  time-economizing  methods.  The  people 
who  try  to  save  time  by  doing  all  things  right 
hot  off  the  bat  seldom  even  get  to  first  base. 

But  it  is  true  that  so  comprehensive  a  scheme 
in  any  large  church  demands  all  the  time  of  a 
trained  worker,  and  so  it  has  come  to  pass  that 

29 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

many  churches  employ  educational  specialists,  and 
that  seminaries  and  some  other  schools  train  these 
specialists.  They  are  usually  known  as  *' Direc- 
tors of  Eeligious  Education.*'  They  are  the  edu- 
cational engineers  of  the  churches. 


30 


CHAPTEE  IV 

EDUCATIONAL    ENGINEERS    IN    THE    CHURCHES 

Mr.  Booker  T.  Washington  called  attention  re- 
cently to  the  need  for  duly  trained  and  qualified 
** educational  engineers''  for  the  rural  public 
schools.  There  is  also  a  need  which,  though  it 
may  not  be  as  common  is  just  as  keen  and  im- 
portant in  each  case,  that  of  educational  engineers 
for  the  churches.  While  those  young  men  who 
look  forward  to  devoting  their  lives  to  ideal  ends 
in  religious  service  are  being  halted  by  the  dis- 
cussion on  the  over-supply  of  men  for  the  min- 
istry, they  need  to  know  that  there  is  one  at- 
tractive field  in  which  there  is  not  only  no  over- 
supply,  but,  on  the  contrary,  an  alarming  defi- 
ciency of  qualified  workers.  One  of  the  best 
known  leaders  in  a  great  religious  organization 
said  recently:  **We  have  thirteen  highly  im- 
portant positions,  all  paying  good  salaries;  and 
not  a  man  for  one  of  them.  0  yes,  hundreds  of 
applicants,  but  none  trained  and  efficient  for  the 
places."  A  pastor  of  one  of  the  most  influential 
churches  in  the  West  spent  several  days  search- 
ing personally  for  a  man,  at  a  salary  nearly  three 
times  the  amount  shown  by  recent  Government 
reports  to  be  the  average  in  the  ministry;  he  also 
wrote  a  large  number  of  letters  of  inquiry,  only 

31 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

at  last  to  give  up  the  quest  in  despair.  He  was 
seeking  an  educational  director  for  his  church — 
a  man,  trained  by  graduate  work  both  in  divinity 
and  education,  to  be  its  educational  engineer. 

There  are  now  (1912)  over  forty  men  in  the 
United  States  employed  by  churches  as  superin- 
tendents of  education.  They  are  designated,  usu- 
ally, as  Directors  of  Eeligious  Education.  In 
nearly  every  case  each  one  is  employed  wholly 
in  a  single  church,  though  in  a  few  instances 
one  director  serves  a  group  of  churches,  as  those 
of  one  denomination  in  a  city,  or  a  neighbourhood 
group  of  several  denominations.  The  field  is  a 
new  one,  or  at  least  one  only  recently  recog- 
nized; it  has  many  attractions,  especially  for 
those  who  appreciate  the  possibilities  of  the  min- 
istry of  teaching  and,  at  this  time,  the  demand 
for  trained  workers  is  far  beyond  the  supply. 

PROFESSIONAL   LEADERS 

Since  the  churches  have  come,  in  at  least  many 
instances,  to  a  recognition  of  the  part  that  the 
educational  process  plays  in  the  work  they  seek 
to  accomplish  and,  consequently,  to  keener  appre- 
ciation of  the  importance  of  their  own  specific 
educational  activities,  there  has  been  a  steadily 
increasing  demand  for  the  services  of  trained  ex- 
perts in  religious  education  in  the  churches.  This 
demand  took  the  simple  form,  at  first,  of  the  em- 
ployment of  *^paid  superintendents"  in  the  Sun- 
day schools.    But  there  came  quickly  the  realiza- 

32 


EDUCATIONAL  ENGINEERS 

tion  that  the  direction  of  the  educational  work 
of  a  church  was  a  matter  including  much  more 
than  the  problems  of  the  Sunday  school  and  call- 
ing for  far  higher  powers  and  more  expert  knowl- 
edge than  one  might  well  expect  of  even  the  better 
kind  of  superintendents.  The  ideal  of  any  church 
with  a  quickened  educational  conscience  includes 
an  efficiently  conducted,  properly  organized  Sun- 
day school,  but  it  regards  that  school  only  as  the 
nexus  of  a  far-reaching  and  well  co-ordinated 
plan  of  religious  education.  The  new  educational 
ministry  in  the  church  grows  out  of  a  new,  two- 
fold conception:  (a)  the  educational  significances 
and  potentialities  of  every  form  of  life  and  serv- 
ice in  the  church;  and  (b)  the  educational  validity 
and  reality  of  the  instructional  work  of  the 
church,  especially  of  that  which  is  designed  spe- 
cifically for  educational  purposes.  The  first  part 
of  this  conception  calls  for  knowledge  of  and  sym- 
pathy with  the  principles  of  education  on  the  part 
of  all  the  servants  of  the  churches;  the  second 
calls  particularly  for  a  special  ministry  prepared 
specifically  for  educational  service,  as  competent 
as  that  in  any  trained  profession,  one  able  to 
bring  about  the  educational  efficiency  of  the 
church  and  its  unity  in  this  respect  with  all  the 
educational  experience  of  its  pupils. 

PROFESSIONAL   COUESES 

The  theological  seminaries  answered  to  this 
newly  recognized  need  with  remarkable  readiness. 
3  33 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

In  many  institutions,  notably  at  Union  Thelogical 
Seminary,  the  University  of  Chicago,  Yale,  Drake, 
and  at  several  of  the  colleges,  departments  of 
Eeligious  Education  have  been  established,  spe- 
cial instructors  engaged,  and  courses  presented. 
The  work  usually  includes  full  courses  in  psy- 
chology, the  history  of  education,  pedagogy,  edu- 
cational method  and  organization,  with  special 
courses  in  the  psychology  of  religion  and  in  Sun- 
day school  methods  and  organization.  These  are 
in  addition  to  the  usual  courses  in  religious  his- 
tory and  literature.  The  courses  are  usually  ar- 
ranged so  that  those  who  look  forward  to  the 
pastorate  may  elect  sufficient  to  gain  a  working 
knowledge  and  sympathy  with  educational  work, 
while  others  may  specialize  in  preparation  for 
educational  leadership. 

The  churches  are  also  responding  to  this  new 
conception  of  a  dual  ministry.  The  reports  re- 
cently presented  by  Commissions  on  Religious 
Education  in  both  the  Northern  Baptist  Conven- 
tion and  amongst  the  Congregational  churches 
presented  a  remarkable  parallel  of  conclusions 
which  were  reached  quite  independently.  In  both 
instances  it  is  recommended  that  all  the  educa- 
tional work  of  the  church  be  unified  and  co-ordi- 
nated about  the  work  of  the  Sunday  school,  so 
that  there  may  be  a  complete  curriculum  of  re- 
ligious knowledge  and  complete  training  in  Chris- 
tian character  and  service  without  duplications  or 
lapses.    The  Northern  Baptist  Commission  explic- 

34 


EDUCATIONAL  ENGINEEES 

itly  recommends  that  *' every  churcli  cremate  a 
standing  commission  or  board  on  religious  educa- 
tion," that  ^^all  the  educational  work  undertaken 
by  such  organizations'^ — '^Sunday  school,  Young 
People's  Society,  Boys'  and  Girls'  Clubs,  and  the 
like" — ^^ should  be  co-ordinated  under  the  educa- 
tional commission  of  the  church, ' '  that '  ^  the  school 
of  the  church — should  include  not  only  the  work 
now  done  in  the  Sunday  school,  but  the  educational 
activities  of  the  church." 

The  plan  presented  above  is  by  no  means  a 
mere  paper  scheme.  Not  only  are  there  at  least 
forty  churches  which  are  following  it  with  so 
great  seriousness  as  to  each  employ  a  minister 
devoting  his  whole  time  to  this  educational  or- 
ganization, but  there  are  large  numbers  carrying 
out  similar  plans  under  the  disadvantages  of  a 
single  salaried  worker  or  with  the  voluntary  aid 
of  teachers  and  others,  while  there  are  many 
churches  only  waiting  until  there  are  men  enough 
properly  trained  to  direct  their  educational  work. 
Some  of  the  best  examples  of  thorough  serious- 
ness in  loyalty  to  this  ideal  in  churches  where 
Directors  of  Religious  Education  are  employed 
are  the  First  Presbyterian,  of  Buffalo,  N.  Y. ;  the 
First  Congregational,  of  Winnetka,  111. ;  the  First 
Methodist,  of  Evanston,  111. ;  the  Second  Baptist, 
of  St.  Louis,  Mo.;  the  First  Congregational,  of 
Los  Angeles,  Cal. ;  the  Brick  Presbyterian,  of 
Eochester,  N.  Y.,  and  the  Pilgrim  Congregational, 
of  Cleveland,  Ohio. 

35 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

Here  is  a  splendid  newly  opened  field  for  men 
who  desire  to  do  worth-wMle  work;  here  is  an 
opportunity  for  ideal  leadership,  especially  for 
those  who  have  in  mind  the  ministry  of  teaching. 
The  church  needs  trained  educators.  Men  who 
hunger  for  toil,  who  long  for  fields  of  wide  scope 
and  high  demands  for  work  where  the  widest  and 
most  thorough  preparation  will  count,  men  to 
whom  the  word  education  has  the  splendid  fas- 
cination of  a  significance  greater  far  than  aca- 
demic honors  or  laboratory  research,  men  who 
seek  to  know  the  laws  of  life  and  apply  them  to 
leading  out  other  lives  to  their  fullness,  have  a 
splendid  opportunity  before  them  here. 

But  this  new  profession  promises  splendid 
things  for  the  future  of  the  Sunday  school. 
Given  the  continuous  application  of  trained  minds 
to  her  problems,  given  the  accumulated  wisdom  of 
years  of  expert  work  and  specialized  experience, 
given  the  values  of  general  educational  experi- 
ence applied  to  the  school,  we  ought  to  be  able  to 
meet  its  problems  and  to  lead  it  out  into  the  larger 
usefulness  which  the  future  demands  of  it.  The 
only  hope  of  making  the  church  adequate  to  its 
new  and  tremendous  task  of  religious  education, 
of  developing  the  lives  of  its  people  to  competent, 
eflScient,  sufficiently  motived  religious  character 
is  by  the  service  and  leadership  of  trained,  de- 
voted experts  in  her  educational  department,  the 
Sunday  school. 

36 


CHAPTEE  V 

HOW  TO  ORGANIZE  AN  EFFICIENT  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

It  is  a  great  help  toward  knowing  how  to  do 
anything  to  first  know  just  what  it  is  we  want 
to  do.  "Whether  the  Sunday  school  will  be  rightly 
organized  will  depend,  most  of  all,  on  whether  we 
have  clear  and  right  conceptions  of  what  it  is 
for.  The  situation  is  clarified  immensely  if  you 
will  get  a  straight  answer  to  this  interrogation: 
*^What  is  the  precise  purpose  of  this  institu- 
tion r' 

I  suppose  the  readiest  answer  to  the  question 
proposed  is  that  the  purpose  of  the  Sunday  school 
is  to  teach  the  Bible.  But  do  we  not  need  to  go 
back  of  that  and  ask,  Wh^  teach  the  Bible?  AVhat 
is  the  ultimate  purpose  of  this  school  I  The  teach- 
ing of  the  Bible  is  a  means  and  not  an  end.  There 
would  be  no  advantage  in  teaching  the  Bible  if 
the  only  result  should  be  people  who  are  learned 
in  the  Bible,  people  who  are  able  to  answer  all 
sorts  of  questions  of  Biblical  research  and  curi- 
ous inquiry;  who  are,  in  a  word,  walking  ware- 
houses of  Biblical  information.  A  walking  ware- 
house of  Biblical  information  is  worth  no  more 
than  a  walking  warehouse  of  any  other  kind  of 

37 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

information  unless  that  information  has  fruitage 
in  life  and  character.  It  is  not  the  Biblical  learn- 
ing that  we  desire  as  an  end,  but  it  is  the  Biblical 
type  of  life.  So  that  the  aim  of  the  Sunday  school 
is  not  a  book,  but  a  being,  a  life ;  or,  better,  a  great 
many  beings,  many  lives.  The  Sunday  school  ex- 
ists that  people,  especially  the  young,  may  be 
trained  in  the  ways  of  the  religious  life,  the  Christ 
life  through  the  Christian  Sunday  school. 

THE  AIM  OF   THE   SCHOOL 

The  church  in  all  its  services  has  practically 
the  same  aim,  the  development  of  Christian  char- 
acter, the  training  of  its  people  in  Christian  use- 
fulness. The  distinguishing  mark  of  the  Sunday 
school,  that  which  separates  it  from  the  other 
departments  and  activities  of  the  church,  is  that 
it  seeks  to  accomplish  this  purpose  by  teaching. 
It  is  engaged  in  educational  work.  It  is  not  a 
meeting,  it  is  not  a  worshiping  assembly,  it  is 
not  a  creche  in  which  children  may  be  deposited, 
it  is  not  a  little  organization  planned  and  sus- 
tained to  give  a  few  people  the  pleasure  of  hold- 
ing office  or  the  publicity  consequent  on  their  per- 
formance. It  is  a  specially  organized  department 
of  the  educational  work  of  the  church.  We  have 
already  defined  a  Sunday  school  as  an  educa- 
tional institution,  meeting  usually  once  a  week, 
under  the  direction  of  a  church  engaged  in  teach- 
ing religious  truth  and  training  in  Christian  char- 
acter and  service,  and  suggested  that  it  should 

38 


HOW  TO  ORGANIZE 

well  be  called  ' '  The  School  of  the  Church. ' '  Thi  s 
conception  must  determine  its  organization. 

If  we  had  no  traditions  behind  us ;  if  we  could 
imagine  we  had  never  seen  a  Sunday  school,  and 
were  told  to  plan  the  organization  of  a  religious 
teaching  department  for  a  church,  to  meet  at  reg- 
ular intervals  and  at  least  enlist  all  the  younger 
people  in  the  community,  how  would  we  proceed? 
Where  would  we  begin?  What  would  be  the  char- 
acteristics of  this  organization  ?  Surely  we  would 
plan  in  view  of  its  purpose.  If  others  came  and 
said.  We  never  have  done  things  this  way,  we 
might  answer.  Then  it  is  time  we  did. 

Beginning  from  the  first,  we  would  plan  an 
institution  for  teaching  purposes  and,  therefore, 
first  of  all,  we  would  provide  teachers;  next,  se- 
cure pupils  to  be  taught,  and  then  provide  for 
their  working  together  under  the  best  possible 
circumstances.  Here  is  the  working  axiom  for 
the  school:  if  it  is  a  teaching  institution,  the 
taught,  the  teachers,  and  the  teaching  are  the 
factors  determinative  of  all  its  plans.  These,  the 
essential  features  of  its  work,  must  receive  its 
largest  attention.  It  is  a  good  test  of  any  Sunday 
school  to  ask:  Is  it  planned  about  its  function 
of  teaching,  with  teaching  as  central,  or  is  its 
teaching  an  incidental  matter  as  compared  to 
some  other  aims?  The  rest  of  the  work  will  not 
take  care  of  itself,  but  it  will  never  be  worth 
while  unless  teaching  is  first  and  dominant. 

Efficiency  demands  the  clear  determination  of 
39 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

functions  and  duties  and  their  assignment  to  the 
proper  agencies.  Our  emphasis  on  teaching  at 
this  point  is  magnified  because  teaching  is  the 
special  function  of  this  school  in  its  gatherings 
on  Sunday.  In  the  organization  of  these  groups 
of  pupils  and  adults  on  Sundays  there  is  one 
single,  simple  aim,  their  efficient  grouping  and 
guidance  for  purpose  of  teaching  the  religious 
life. 

Remember,  we  are  discussing  here  only  the 
Sunday  school,  the  activities  of  the  school  of  the 
church  as  it  meets  on  Sunday.  This  particular 
teaching  organization  is  only  a  part  of  the  larger 
organization  for  religious  education,  just  as  teach- 
ing— even  in  its  broadest  sense — is  only  a  part 
of  the  whole  process  of  education.  If  the  church 
first  secures  an  efficient  organization  for  teaching 
purposes  in  this  school  meeting  on  Sunday,  it 
will  be  prepared  to  move  forward  in  securing 
efficiency  in  the  whole  round  of  education  for  the 
religious  life  of  its  people.  To  clarify  our  pur- 
poses at  the  point  of  efficiency  for  teaching  in 
the  school  proper  will  help  to  make  clear  the  way 
to  provide  for  all  the  religious  educational  needs 
of  the  lives  of  those  for  whom  the  church  is  re- 
sponsible. 

If  the  Sunday  school  really  teaches,  services 
of  worship  must  inspire,  directed  activities  of 
service  must  train  the  habits,  social  groups  must 
stimulate  the  life  and  develop  the  will.  The  effi- 
ciency of  the  teaching  depends  on  the  support 

40 


HOW  TO  ORGANIZE 

of  worship,  service,  and  the  social  life.  But  the 
main  point  here  is  that  the  function  of  teach- 
ing furnishes  a  simple,  plain  point  of  attack ;  we 
can  secure  efficiency  here  and  move  out  from  that 
into  the  all  around  program  of  education. 

It  is  surely  hardly  necessary,  to-day,  to  say 
that  by  ** teaching '^  we  do  not  mean  that  to  which 
teaching  is  technically  limited,  viz.,  instruction; 
still  less  simply  talking  or  telling.  Here  teach- 
ing means  all  that  a  good  teacher  will  do  in  train- 
ing, guiding,  developing,  co-operating  with  and 
stimulating  the  pupil. 

ORGANIZATION- 

Sunday  school  organization  would  be  a  simple 
matter  indeed  if  each  school  had  only  one  teacher. 
The  fact  that  we  have  to  have  many,  and  that 
they  must  teach  many  kinds  of  people  of  many 
ages,  complicates  the  situation.  We  cannot  have 
these  teachers  working  at  random;  we  cannot 
have  them  meeting  at  various  seasons,  teaching 
subjects  without  reference  one  to  another,  or  con- 
ducting their  classes  in  blissful  unconsciousness 
or  willful  ignoring  one  of  another.  Because  we 
have  many  teachers  we  must  have  those  who  serve 
to  guide  groups  of  teachers,  who  supervise  their 
work,  direct  it,  set  times  and  bounds  and  seasons. 
In  the  small  school  one  such  officer  will  be  enough ; 
we  call  him,  then,  the  Supervisor  or,  usually.  Su- 
perintendent. In  the  larger  school  the  personal 
touch  and  proper"  direction  of  the  work  of  every 

41 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

teacher  would  be  too  mucli  for  one  man,  and  so 
we  group  the  teachers  into  divisions,  according 
to  the  great  broad  life-grades  or  divisions  of  the 
pupils,  and  place  each  group  of  teachers  under 
the  charge  of  a  division  director.  It  makes  little 
difPerence  what  you  call  these  officers,  except  for 
convenience  in  understanding  one  another,  so  long 
as  you  grasp  the  simple  proposition  that  these 
officers  are  to  bring  together,  unify,  direct,  co- 
ordinate the  teachings  and  all  activities  of  the 
grades  or  groups  under  them. 

There  ought  to  be  those  who  advise  with  these 
officers  in  regard  to  the  special  interests  of  the 
school  as  a  whole,  the  course  of  study  as  a  whole 
for  the  school,  the  relation  of  the  school  to  the 
church,  to  other  interests,  the  plans  for  the  ex- 
pression of  the  spiritual  life  of  the  pupils.  It  is 
a  good  thing  to  have  some  man  whose  special 
business  it  is  to  plan  the  course  of  study,  another 
whose  special  business  it  is  to  care  for  the  music 
of  all  the  school — except  in  those  large  schools 
where  several  such  musical  directors  will  be 
needed;  another,  preferably  the  pastor,  who  will 
seek  to  unify  all  the  work  of  the  school  for  its 
spiritual  ends.  These  are  special  officers,  just  as 
the  librarian  is  the  special  officer  having  charge 
of  the  literary  life  of  the  pupils. 

THE   PUPILS 

Some  people  stop  right  here  when  they  think 
of  organizing  a  school.     So  far  this  might  be  the 

42 


HOW  TO  ORGANIZE 

kind  of  an  organization  planned  by  those  who 
never  allow  their  planning  to  come  under  the  dis- 
traction of  practice.  That  which  is,  after  all, 
really  the  primary  and  finally  decisive  factor  must 
never  be  forgotten — that  is,  the  pupil.  You  must 
plan  your  school  around  your  pupils.  That  is 
what  we  have  been  doing;  we  have  planned  this 
as  a  teaching  agency  because  teaching,  educating 
is  the  way  that  Christian  character  is  to  be  pro- 
duced in  these  pupils.  So  all  the  life  of  the  school 
must  in  a  right  sense  follow  the  life  of  the  child. 
We  fail  if  we  forget  that  and  seem  to  think  we 
can  shape  our  school  as  we  will,  treating  the  chil- 
dren as  so  many  bricks,  or  so  many  noses  to  be 
counted.  The  first  thing  you  must  do  is  to  get 
these  pupils,  and  then  you  must  do,  not  what  they 
say,  but  what  their  lives  say.  You  must  shape 
the  school  according  to  their  needs. 

As  to  getting  together  the  pupils.  Make  up 
your  mind  as  to  what  ones  you  ought  to  get. 
Invite  every  one  of  these  into  your  school.  Then 
invite  them  again.  Follow  up,  and  keep  on  fol- 
lowing up.  But  be  sure  you  have  something  to 
invite  them  to.  The  effects  are  fatal  so  far  as 
future  interest  is  concerned  if  you  invite  them 
only  to  disappointment,  to  confusion,  and  chaos. 
The  best  recruiting  agency  any  school  has  is  the 
high  quality  of  the  school  itself.  Nothing  wins 
people  like  worthiness,  nothing  holds  them  like 
helpfulness.  A  card  list  of  possible  scholars  may 
be  as  necessary  and  valuable  as  your  card  index 

43 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

of  present  scholars.  Keep  on  transferring  the 
names  from  the  first  to  the  second. 

Be  sure  you  know  what  you  are  going  to  do 
with  the  pupils  you  get.  Do  not  herd  them;  or- 
ganize them.  If  educational  reasons  did  not  de- 
mand it,  the  nature  and  interests  of  the  pupils 
would — and  after  all,  these  are  both  the  same. 
With  what  purpose  shall  they  be  organized?  In 
order  that  they  may  hold  offices,  wear  badges,  or 
that  others  m^ay  be  drawn  into  this  petty  scheme 
of  whirling  wheels?  Organize  your  scholars  for 
the  aims  of  the  school,  for  purposes  of  training, 
educating,  teaching.  Therefore  they  will  first  be 
organized  according  to  their  needs  in  teaching. 
You  will  bring  them  together  in  groups  accord- 
ing to  their  levels  of  development  and  attain- 
ment. Do  not  imagine  that  you  have  to  go  to 
work  to  mechanically  grade  your  school;  rather, 
simply  recognize  the  fact  that  the  pupils  are  al- 
ready graded,  they  are  at  various  stages  of  de- 
velopment, varying  ages;  nature  grades  them; 
all  you  have  to  do  is  to  follow  the  lines  of  grada- 
tion already  made.  (Gradation  is  more  fuUy  dis- 
cussed later.) 

Keep  in  mind  the  simple  statement  that  the 
Sunday  school  is  a  teaching  agency,  that  it  has 
to  do  principally  with  teaching  those  who  are  in 
the  years  of  most  rapid  development  and  who, 
therefore,  vary  vastly  among  themselves ;  that  its 
work  of  teaching  is  its  central  and  determinating 

44 


HOW  TO  OEGANIZE 

activity.  Therefore,  you  will  have  no  officers  and 
no  parts  of  the  organization  that  do  not  relate 
themselves  to  and  justify  themselves  by  the  teach- 
ing function  of  the  school  as  the  agency  of  the 
church  for  the  education  of  youth  into  the  full 
religious  life. 


45 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  GRADED  SCHOOL 

The  graded  Sunday  school  is  in  danger  of  be- 
coming a  fad.  Grading  is  likely  to  be  regarded 
as  a  specific  for  all  the  ills  that  schools  are  heir  to. 
Standing  by  the  bedside  of  the  sick  Sunday  school, 
its  officers  say,  ' '  Come  to,  let  's  grade. ' '  At  vari- 
ous times  various  similar  specifics  have  been  sug- 
gested. The  panacea  once  was  a  perfect  Pri- 
mary; later,  homoeopathic  doses  of  the  Home  De- 
partment were  prescribed.  Then,  for  a  brief 
while  all  the  Sunday  school  drug  departments 
carried  signs  reading,  **Take  a  Messenger  Serv- 
ice for  that  tired  feeling.*'  Next  came  Supple- 
mental Lessons  for  soporific  schools.  In  a  sim- 
ilar manner  the  Adult  Department  and  even 
Teacher-training  have  been  regarded  as  ready 
reliefs  from  that  real  labour  and  earnest  study 
which  are  the  sole  conditions  of  the  solution  of 
the  Sunday  school  problems.  All  these  suggested 
improvements  have  made  contributions  to  the 
Sunday  school  only  in  the  measure  that  they  have 
been  regarded,  not  as  fads  or  specifics,  but  as  the 
logical  application  of  the  fundamental  principles 
of  the  Sunday  school  to  conditions  as  they  arose 
or  as  they  were  more  clearly  realizedl 

46 


SIGNIFICANCE  OF  GRADED  SCHOOL 

It  is  of  first  importance,  if  the  present  move- 
ment for  the  gradation  of  scholars  and  the  adap- 
tation of  material  in  the  Sunday  school  is  to  have 
permanence  and  value,  that  we  shall  realize  just 
what  are  the  underlying  principles  of  gradation 
and  what  relation  they  bear  to  the  wider  move- 
ment of  religious  education  in  general.  It  is  im- 
portant to  see  that  the  graded  Sunday  school  is 
not  a  specialized  propaganda;  not  a  freak  propo- 
sition; not  a  fad  or  craze  of  some  small  group 
of  extremists;  not  the  ideal  conception  of  some 
theorist  who  stretches  his  feet  under  his  desk  in 
his  study,  but  never  sets  them  inside  the  distract- 
ing precincts  of  an  actual  school;  who  imagines 
what  the  ideal  school  ought  to  be,  and  then  what 
he  might  do  with  the  puppets  who  would  be  its 
pupils  and  the  professional  paidologists  who 
would  be  its  pedagogs.  Neither  is  the  graded 
school  a  panacea  for  diseases  or  derangements. 

WHAT  IS  GBADING? 

Precisely  tvhat  do  we  mean  hy  grading  the 
Sunday  school?  Grading  is:  (1)  The  classifica- 
tion of  pupils  according  to  their  ages  and  capaci- 
ties. (2)  The  assignment  of  pupils  to  classes  ac- 
cording to  this  classification.  (3)  The  arrange- 
ment of  these  classes  into  larger  groups  or  divi- 
sions. (4)  The  provision  of  teachers  especially 
qualified  for  the  work  of  each  grade.  (5)  The 
provision  of  material  for  study  selected  accord- 
ing to  the  needs  of  each  grade.     (6)   The  pro- 

47 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

motion  of  pupils  from  grade  to  grade  on  the  basis 
of  their  developing  life  needs.  Gradation  is 
recognition  of  and  adaptation  to  facts  already 
existing;  the  children  are  already  graded  by 
nature,  by  custom,  and  by  school  grades. 

It  is  important  to  remember  that  the  pro- 
vision of  material  of  study  selected  according  to 
the  needs  of  each  grade  is  perhaps  of  even  greater 
importance  than  that  which  usually  receives 
major  attention,  namely,  mechanical  arrange- 
ments of  pupils  in  groups  and  grades.  Some 
elementary  principles  in  the  selection  and  ar- 
rangement of  the  curriculum  must  be  borne  in 
mind.  (1)  The  material  will  be  selected  on 
genetic  considerations;  that  is,  its  choice  will  be 
determined  by  the  nature,  the  life  history,  process, 
and  progress  of  the  pupil.  (2)  It  will  especially 
have  in  mind  the  epochs  or  crises  in  that  de- 
veloping life.  (3)  The  course  will  be  unitary. 
That  is,  organized  into  a  coherent  whole  in  itself 
without  breaks  or  chasms  from  grade  to  grade, 
moving  steadily  to  definite  ends.  It  will,  as  far 
as  possible,  be  unitary  with  all  those  other  studies 
and  interests  of  the  pupil's  home,  public  school, 
and  religious  life.  (4)  It  will  be  sufficiently  com- 
prehensive to  meet  the  pupil's  actual  religious 
needs  under  present-day  conditions.  (5)  It  will 
seek  the  discipline  of  the  whole  life  for  its  full- 
ness, its  harmony  with  all  life,  and  its  efficiency 
in  Christian  social  service. 


48 


SIGNIFICANCE  OF  GEADED  SCHOOL 

PROGRESS  IN  GRADATION 

One  cannot  pause  to  survey  the  progress  of 
the  adoption  of  principles  such  as  these.  A  few 
years  ago,  however,  the  graded  Sunday  school 
was  an  object  of  derision  by  the  relatively  small 
number  who  were  conscious  of  its  existence.  To- 
day it  is  the  object  of  opposition  only  of  those 
who  object  to  anything  that  would  break  up 
their  indolent  apathy  and  paralysis  of  prejudice, 
that  would  disturb  the  deadly  peace  of  that  fool's 
paradise  of  past  attainments  in  which  they  live; 
who  fight  with  vigour  whatever  strikes  into  new 
paths,  forsakes  yesterday  for  to-morrow,  or 
threatens  to  place  them  under  the  necessity  of 
endeavouring  to  think.  Yet  the  graded  Sunday 
school  is  coming  so  rapidly  that  even  the  most 
conservative  are  recognizing  its  constituency  as 
worthy  of  consideration  and  as  forming  so  large 
a  part  of  the  Sunday  school  world  as  wholly  to 
reverse  policies  that  were  supposed  once  to  be 
impregnably  immutable.  Observation  covering 
nearly  every  State  in  the  Union  convinces  one 
that  the  graded  school  is  not  the  creature  of 
some  small  group  of  peculiarly  fortunate  schools, 
but  is  the  attempt  to  realize  an  ideal  adopted  by 
every  school  that  is  conscious  of  a  definite  teach- 
ing mission. 

Perhaps  nothing  is  more  impressive  in  the 
matter  of  Sunday  school  progress  than  a  glance 
at  the  literature  both  of  the  theory  of  this  type 
of  school  and  of  the  material  provided  for  its 

49 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

use.  Ten  years  ago  there  was  not  a  single  im- 
portant book  committing  the  school  to  this  prin- 
ciple. To-day  one  finds  it  difficult  to  enumerate 
all  the  good  books  written  in  its  advocacy.  Ten 
years  ago  there  was  scarcely  any  provision  of  the 
most  roughly  graded  material.  To-day  there  is 
a  wealth  of  material  for  every  possible  grade  in 
the  school. 

NEW  EDUCATIONAL  IDEALS 

Gradation  in  the  Sunday  school  is  simply  the 
application  of  the  educational  principles  and 
ideals  to  that  school.  It  is  the  evidence  and  ex- 
pression of  a  great  movement  which  has  been  go- 
ing on  all  through  the  educational  world,  a  move- 
ment which  has  two  distinct  characteristics ;  first, 
the  recognition  of  education  as  the  development 
of  a  life  toward  what  we  must  ultimately  recog- 
nize as  spiritual  ends;  second,  the  acceptance  of 
the  genetic  basis  for  the  process  of  education. 
We  are  living  in  an  era  accepting  entirely  dif- 
ferent educational  ideals  from  those  to  which  our 
fathers  were  accustomed.  To  them  education 
meant  one  of  two  things,  either  the  acquisition 
of  familiarity  with  the  three  R's  and  perhaps 
with  a  few  other  useful  items  of  knowledge  in 
order  to  fit  a  boy  for  the  business  of  earning  a 
living,  or  as  the  opportunity  to  acquire  a  super- 
ficial familiarity  with  those  things  which  it  was 
supposed  an  educated  person  ought  to  know  and 
the  possession  of  which  gave  one  a  reputation  for 

50 


SIGNIFICANCE  OF  GRADED  SCHOOL 

culture.  To-day  education  is  satisfied  with  neither 
the  utilitarian  nor  this  superficial  ^* cultural"  aim. 
Education  is  the  leading  of  a  life  through  the  dis- 
covery of  self  and  the  universe  by  the  develop- 
ment of  its  own  powers  into  harmony  with  the 
universe,  into  the  possession  of  the  fullness  of 
its  heritage,  into  efficiency  in  the  service  it  should 
render  in  the  world.  It  is  to-day  perhaps  best 
of  all  expressed  in  terms  of  social  efficiency.  In 
a  word,  we  see  education  as  a  life  process  with 
a  life  aim. 

THE    NEW   EDUCATION   IN   THE   SUNDAY   SCHOOL 

The  new  ideals  in  education  work  down  into 
the  Sunday  school  and  produce  certain  results 
there.  We  can  no  longer  be  satisfied  with  the 
Sunday  school,  either  from  the  utilitarian  stand- 
point as  by  hook  or  crook  it  hangs  on  to  chil- 
dren until  they  can  be  counted  in  the  church,  nor 
with  the  informational  test  as  it  gives  to  them 
some  veneer  familiarity  with  Scriptural  subjects, 
dexterity  in  quoting  text  or  giving  Biblical  gene- 
alogical tables.  The  Sunday  school  under  the 
pressure  of  modern  educational  ideals  has  uncon- 
sciously accepted  the  two  great  principles,  which, 
at  root,  are  one,  that  education  deals  with  a  life 
for  the  fullness  of  that  life,  and  therefore  follows 
the  laws  of  that  life.  The  Sunday  school  accepting 
as  its  immediate  aim  the  Christlike  life  and  serv- 
ice, the  development  of  the  growing  life  reli- 
giously and  spiritually  into  efficiency,  adapts  its 

51 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

methods  and  materials  to  meet  the  demands  of 
such  an  ideal.  Therefore,  the  Sunday  school  is 
graded;  that  is,  it  falls  into  levels  and  divisions 
which  correspond  to  the  levels  and  development 
in  the  life  of  the  child.  It  uses  graded  material 
which  is  progressively  adapted  to  the  stages  of  de- 
velopment in  the  life  of  the  child;  and  it  selects 
this  material,  not  on  the  ground  of  being  able  to 
take  a  student  on  a  seven-year  circular  tour 
through  the  Bible,  but  on  the  basis  of  the  effect- 
iveness of  the  material  for  the  character  aims 
at  each  stage  in  the  development.  Gradation 
results  from  applying  efficiency  tests  to  the 
school's  methods  and  determining  those  methods 
by  the  laws  under  which  lives  grow,  by  appropri- 
ate food  and  exercise,  selected  according  to  the 
developing  needs  of  each  life. 

As  soon  as  the  school  adopted  the  modem 
educational  ideals  it  became  impossible  for  it  to 
use  the  prescribed  circular  tour  tickets  of  Biblical 
travel,  in  which  the  infants  were  taken  to  de- 
cipher the  Eosetta  stones,  and  the  adults  were 
compelled  to  tarry  and  draw  spiritual  lessons 
from  the  fables  and  wonder  stories. 

The  gradation  of  the  Sunday  school  has  not 
been  a  revolt  from  constituted  authority;  it  has 
been  a  return  to  the  authority  of  principles  and 
ideals  of  education  in  the  school.  The  movement 
for  graded  Sunday  schools  has  its  permanent  sig- 
nificance in  that  it  is  a  recognition  of  the  Sunday 
school  as  an  educational  agency.    It  becomes  a 

52 


SIGNIFICANCE  OF  GRADED  SCHOOL 

serious  part  of  our  whole  educational  machinery. 
In  the  measure  that  the  Sunday  schools  are  loyal 
to  the  educational  ideals  and  will  reasonably  and 
thoroughly  apply  educational  method,  they  will 
win  the  co-operation  and  endorsement  of  the  reg- 
ular educational  agencies  and  will  hasten  the  co- 
ordination of  all  such  agencies  so  that  all  may 
work  together  in  harmony  for  the  development  of 
the  full  life  and  for  the  fullness  of  social  living. 
The  day  is  not  far  distant  when  all  those  who 
know  what  education  means  will  speak  just  as 
seriously  of  the  Sunday  school  as  they  now  do 
of  the  public  school ;  when,  because  it  has  be- 
come educational  in  aim  and  method,  the  school 
will  escape  from  the  oblivion  of  inefficiency  and 
the  limelight  of  ridicule.  It  is  a  matter  of  no 
mean  significance  that,  for  example,  in  the  Re- 
ligious Education  Association  the  foremost  educa- 
tional experts  in  the  country,  who  catch  most 
clearly  the  spiritual  ideal  of  education,  are  giv- 
ing themselves  to  the  serious  study  of  the  Sunday 
school  because  they  regard  this  institution  as  not 
unworthy  of  their  most  careful  thought  and  ex- 
pert planning. 

It  will  be  no  little  comfort  to  teachers  and 
officers  when  they  can  feel  that  the  Sunday  school 
ID  which  they  are  working  is  part  of  a  great 
general  educational  system.  It  will  mean  a  tre- 
mendous advance  when,  by  conformity  to  edu- 
cational ideals  and  methods,  the  Sunday  school 
entitles  itself  to  recognition  by  the  State  and 

53 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

other  authorities  in  education  and  when  all  those 
powers  and  forces  which  account  for  the  public 
schools,  secondary  schools,  normal  schools,  col- 
leges, the  universities,  and  the  technical  schools 
in  our  civilization,  lend  themselves  to  give  to  the 
Sunday  school  that  degree  of  competency  and 
efficiency  which  its  high  mission  demands  it  should 
have.  And  this  is  the  promise  of  the  graded 
movement. 

NEW  EFFICIENCY  STANDARDS 

What  are  the  outstanding  results  of  the  move- 
ment for  gradation f  What  are  the  new  efficiency 
standards  1 

The  first  result  is  the  setting  up  of  new  stand- 
ards in  the  Sunday  school  organization.  Certain 
authorities,  self -constituted,  set  up  tests  of  front- 
rank  Sunday  schools,  such  as  having  home  de- 
partments, cradle  rolls,  written  work,  training 
classes,  banner  classes,  decision  days,  etc.  Do 
these  constitute  criteria  for  efficiency  in  view  of 
the  educational  aim?  There  are  three  general 
standards  in  the  schools.  First,  the  statistical, 
measuring  the  school  by  its  size,  its  offerings,  its 
ability  to  enable  the  pastor  to  come  up  with  a 
report  that  will  show  up  well  in  the  tables  of 
statistics.  Second,  the  so-called  evangelistic, 
seeking  only  to  bring  every  pupil  to  a  decision 
day,  and  counting  its  duty  wholly  done  as  soon 
as  he  is  enrolled  in  church  membership.  Third, 
the  educational,  measuring  the  organization  by 

54 


SIGNIFICANCE  OF  GEADED  SCHOOL 

the  standard  of  its  power  to  develop  a  life,  to 
lead  it  to  its  spiritual  heritage  and  to  its  social 
service.  T?ie  educational  aim  does  not  invalidate 
the  evangelistic  aim.  It  serves  that  aim.  It  com- 
pletes it.  There  is  all  the  difference  in  the  world 
between  education  as  a  method  in  evangelism  and 
education  as  the  sole  evangel.  The  educational 
aim  sets  up  new  standards  of  success.  It  does 
not  endorse  the  boasting  of  the  large  school, 
which  may  be  no  more  than  a  periodic  assemblage 
of  a  mob,  nor  does  it  feel  the  necessity  of  apolo- 
gizing for  the  small  school,  which  elects  to  do 
seriously  and  thoroughly  with  a  few  that  which 
could  not  be  done  effectively  with  many. 

The  Teachers'  Advantages 

In  the  graded  school  we  find  teachers  who  are 
able  not  only  to  stay  in  some  one  grade  for  years 
and  so  to  make  themselves  exceptionally  proficient 
in  its  methods,  but  who  also  teach  in  that  same 
grade  practically  the  same  subject  year  after  year 
and  who  are,  therefore,  seeking  wider  prepara- 
tion in  that  subject  continually.  Suppose  Mr.  A. 
is  teaching  a  grade  of  boys  of  about  twelve  years 
of  age,  leading  them  to  the  study  of  the  life  of 
Jesus.  The  school  expects  of  him  that  he  will 
specialize  on  two  things,  namely,  boys  of  twelve 
and  the  life  of  Jesus  for  boys  of  twelve.  Now, 
that  kind  of  special  training  is  the  need  felt  by 
teachers  all  through  such  schools.  Of  course, 
there  is  no  hope  of  specializing  on  any  subject 

55 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

if  the  subjects  change  every  month  or  year;  but 
the  ^^quick-change'*  artist  is  needed  no  longer  in 
the  Sunday  school. 

It  demands  practice  and  observation  work  for 
teachers.  Public  school  teachers  who  are  trained 
spend  no  little  time  in  practice  and  observation 
work.  Sunday  school  teachers  are  usually  thrown 
into  their  tasks  without  opportunity  to  observe 
good  teachers  at  work.  See  how  eagerly  they  flock 
to  the  school  or  institute  where  observation  is 
possible.  They  get  no  practice  until  they  begin 
to  work  on  their  classes.  Perhaps  the  idea  of 
small  classes  for  laboratory  work  under  the  eye 
of  a  competent  pedagogue  would  seem  like  pro- 
fanity to  some  people,  since  it  would  appear  so 
much  more  pious  to  permit  the  untrained  teacher 
to  practice  blindly  for  years  on  a  real  class.  Nor- 
mal school  students  do  not  waste  affection  on 
their  official  critics  during  their  course,  but  they 
do  bless  them  in  after  years.  We  need  to  tackle 
this  problem  of  observation  and  practice  under 
wise  direction  and  criticism  for  our  Sunday 
school  teachers  before  classes  are  formally  com- 
mitted to  them. 

Unconsciously  to  itself,  the  modem  clamour 
for  teacher-training  is  both  the  acceptance  of  the 
educational  ideal  and  the  acknowledgment  of  a 
serious  indictment  against  the  old  course  of  study 
in  the  school.  The  teachers  who  are  to  be  trained 
have  been  commonly  in  the  Sunday  school  for  ten 
or  a  dozen  years,  and  yet  before  they  can  teach 

56 


SIGNIFICANCE  OF  GRADED  SCHOOL 

the  Bible,  the  Book  they  are  supposed  to  have 
been  studying  for  all  these  years,  they  must  take 
a  course  of  special  study  therein.  What  have  they 
been  studying  these  years  if  at  the  end  they 
need  work  as  elementary  as  the  average  teacher- 
training  work  in  the  Bible! 

MAKING  THE   MOST  OF  THE   MOVEMENT 

In  what  way  may  the  Sunday  school  get  the 
largest  benefit  from  the  present  movement  for 
religious  education?  First,  by  seeing  that  its 
workers  are  thoroughly  informed  on  the  princi- 
ples of  this  movement,  on  what  it  is  doing,  its 
practice  and  its  results.  Nothing  will  help  a 
teacher  or  officer  more  than  to  get  into  the  closest 
touch  with  the  dynamic  of  this  new  movement. 
Let  this  familiarity  be  acquired  by  reading,  by 
attendance  upon  gatherings  where  the  ideals  of 
this  movement  are  enunciated,  by  liberal  pro- 
visions for  familiarity  with  its  literature,  by 
familiar  identification  with  its  agencies.  Second, 
that  the  school  make,  through  its  officers  and 
teachers,  its  contribution  to  the  promotion  of  the 
educational  ideals  and  practice  in  schools.  I 
mean  not  so  much  its  money  gifts,  welcome  as 
they  will  be,  as  I  do  mean  the  application  to 
specific  problems  in  organizing  and,  still  more,  in 
the  preparation  of  suitable  material  for  graded 
schools.  If  you  are  working  at  these  problems 
in  your  own  school,  learn  to  regard  yourself  as 
debtor  to  this  whole  movement  and  determine  that 

57 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

whatever  you  may  discover  for  yourself  shall 
become  the  possession  of  all.  Last  in  time,  but 
first  in  importance,  the  essential  thing,  that  which 
embraces  all  others,  is  the  committal  of  oneself 
and,  as  far  as  one  may,  of  one's  school  to  the 
educational  principle.  To  say  this  school  shall 
not  be  a  plaything,  but  shall  be  a  seriously 
planned  organization  to  accomplish  definite  pur- 
poses, and  to  do  this  by  following  recognized  laws 
and  methods,  that  we  will  be  loyal  to  that  which 
we  know  to  be  truth  regardless  of  pressure  or 
ridicule  or  fear  of  failure  or  hope  of  success  in 
any  other  way.  Our  schools  are  what  they  are 
to-day  because  men  yesterday  did  not  fear  to 
forsake  the  path  of  the  past.  They  refused  to 
mark  time  on  the  highway  of  the  present.  They 
pushed  into  the  future  guided  by  the  light  they 
had.  Ours  is  the  larger  light.  Ours  the  oppor- 
tunity to  move  into  the  larger  day. 


58 


CHAPTEE  VII 

WHY  SOME  GKADED  SCHOOLS  FAIL 

Why  do  some  graded  schools  fail  while  other  un- 
graded schools  find  no  small  measure  of  success? 

That  question  does  not  mean,  why  are  some 
graded  schools  numerically  small  while  certain 
ungraded  schools  may  be  quite  large?  Failure 
and  success  are  not  quantitative  here.  It  does  not 
mean,  why  do  some  ungraded  schools  run  with 
an  easy  Hip-Hoorah!  while  other  graded  schools 
demand  much  serious  labour?  The  school  that 
runs  on  its  own  momentum  is  usually  accelerat- 
ing itself  by  gravity,  going  down.  But  there  are 
occasionally  schools,  boasting  of  being  thoroughly 
graded,  which  are  failing  to  do  the  work  of  a 
Sunday  school,  and  there  are  schools  which  ignore 
gradation  and  yet  achieve  success  in  certain  im- 
portant directions.  The  cases  are  not  common, 
but  they  present  to  the  casual  observer  a  problem 
that  may  lead  to  a  superficial  judgment  against 
gradation. 

An  examination  of  a  few  instances  of  this  kind 
brings  out  certain  contrasts  in  these  schools,  par- 
ticularly as  to  the  points  of  emphasis  in  their 
work.    The  contrasts  form  a  diagnosis^  they  may 

59 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

suggest  the  treatment  for  graded  scliools  that  ap- 
pear sickly  and  even  near  to  death. 

Bear  in  mind  that,  on  one  side,  this  is  a  brief 
pathological  study;  it  deals  with  a  few  deranged, 
sickly  ^'graded  schools."  It  is  not  a  discussion 
of  healthy  schools;  it  is  not  an  indictment  of 
gradation. 

THE    II^TELLECTUAL   VS,    THE    PERSONAL 

First,  these  particular  ailing  ^'graded*' 
schools  emphasize  the  intellectual  aim,  while  the 
apparently  healthy  ungraded  school  emphasizes 
the  personal  aim.  The  former  thinks  only  of  stu- 
dents. It  hopes  to  accomplish  its  purpose  solely 
by  lessons.  It  plans  a  careful  series  of  studies. 
It  boasts  of  its  text-books.  Sometimes  they  are 
selected  by  a  wise  committee  of  adults  who  have 
forgotten  all  about  youthful  interests.  The  more 
these  books  look  like  severe  texts  in  higher  edu- 
cation, the  better  pleased  are  they.  The  school 
impresses  on  teachers  the  glory  of  academic 
standards;  it  is  proud  of  the  really  abnormal 
child  who  would  rather  read  than  run.  It  in- 
sists on  periodic  examinations.  It  measures  re- 
sults by  purely  intellectual  attainments.  Getting 
these  results  but  meagrely,  it  withers  away  on 
the  cold  stalk  of  intellectual  pride.  Fortunately 
such  schools  are  rare;  happily  they  die  young. 

The  contrasting  school  lays  its  emphasis  on 
people  as  persons.  It  has  some  men  and  women 
who  love  youth.    They  seek  pupils  because  they 

60 


WHY  SOME  GRADED  SCHOOLS  FAIL 

like  them.  To  them  the  greatest  joy  in  life  is 
to  gather  young  lives  about  them.  Going  into 
that  school,  your  intellectual  conscience  may  even 
be  offended  in  many  ways,  but  you  know  you  are 
with  friendly  folk,  there  is  a  feeling  of  comrade- 
ship, of  human  sympathy  and  happiness.  All  our 
learning  is  a  mocking  void  without  that  love. 
There  have  been  some  mighty  good  mothers  who 
never  heard  of  psychology.  True,  we  need  more 
than  feelings  of  affection;  we  need  the  love  that 
loves  enough  to  take  pains  to  learn  how  to  love 
and  lead  young  lives  into  fullness  of  living. 
Youth  must  have  warmth  as  well  as  light. 

LITERATURE   VS.   LIFE 

Second,  these  particular  ailing  *^ graded" 
schools  emphasize  the  aim  of  systematic  Bible 
study,  while  the  apparently  healthy  ungraded 
school  emphasizes  that  of  the  Christian  life.  This 
symptom  does  not  differ  greatly  from  the  first; 
analysis  helps  us  to  detect  it,  however.  This 
sickly  school  exists  to  give  all  its  students  a 
modified  theological  curriculum.  Its  people  are 
under  the  twin  delusions  that  scientific,  historical 
Bible  study  is  possible  and  normal  to  all  young 
people  and  that  such  study  is  the  sole  business  of 
this  school.  Its  curriculum  is  determined  by  the 
literature  studied,  not  by  the  interest  and  life- 
development  of  the  students.  It  exists  to  teach 
a  literature,  and  it  gauges  its  product  by  scholar- 
ship.   The  other  school  is  manned  by  people  who 

61 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

desire  pre-eminently  that  youth  should  come  into 
religious  fullness.  They  may  err  as  to  the 
methods,  but  they  are  in  earnest  as  to  the  great 
aim.  Its  teachers  are  thinking  all  the  time  of 
the  potential  Christian  man  in  the  boy.  They 
seek  a  life  rather  than  a  literary  interest.  Youth 
answers  to  the  search  for  life.  He  would  rather 
be  led  by  wrong  methods  on  a  living  way  than  by 
the  rules  on  the  way  of  dead  interest.  We  do 
not  discount  the  values  of  Biblical  literature ;  we 
do  insist  that  it  is  a  means  and  not  an  end. 

ORGANIZATION   VS,  SOCIAL  LIFE 

Third,  some,  yes,  many  of  these  ailing  graded 
s(;hools  lay  their  emphasis  on  formal  organization, 
while  the  healthy  ungraded  school  lays  stress  on 
social  grouping  and  life.  Frequently  the  former 
has  adopted  gradation  as  a  fetish.  They  heard 
of  its  fundamental  values;  they  adopted  it  as  a 
sure  cure  for  ancient  ills  and  a  short  cut  to  modem 
success.  In  their  hands  it  is  a  specific ;  it  is  used 
as  a  trick  and  device.  They  have  worked  out 
most  carefully  the  scheme  of  gradation;  it  looks 
very  pretty  on  paper;  perhaps  it  is  put  into 
print — very  impressive!  Its  sponsors  seem  to 
think  that  children  are  only  so  many  things  to 
be  mechanically  classified  and  slipped  into  the 
appropriate  pigeon-holes  of  their  system.  Such 
a  school  is  not  graded  at  all;  it  is  divided.  Gra- 
dation is,  first  of  all,  the  recognition  of  existing 
grades  in  the  natures  and  attainments  of  the 

62 


WHY  SOME  GRADED  SCHOOLS  FAIL 

young.  Failure  is  bound  to  follow  whenever  you 
depend  wholly  on  any  system.  No  plan  works 
itself.  Plan  your  work,  and  then  work  your  plan. 
But  the  great  weakness  of  this  school  comes  out 
in  contrast  with  the  other  one.  In  this  latter 
every  effort  is  made  to  group  youth  up  into  their 
existing  social  *^ gangs."  You  will  find  that, 
though  lessons  may  be  ungraded,  there  is  a  life, 
spontaneity,  and  attractiveness  about  the  classes, 
and  it  is  due  to  the  fact  that  every  class  is  pretty 
nearly  a  normal  social  group.  It  consists  chiefly 
of  the  young  people  who  belong  together  in  every- 
day life.  They  are  approximately  the  same  age, 
stage,  and  development  and  class.  They  have 
been  graded  in  the  social  sifting  process.  Still 
more  do  we  see  the  value  of  social  emphasis  in 
the  steady  .effort  of  this  school  to  develop  a 
normal  life  of  recreation,  pleasure,  and  self -cul- 
ture in  its  youth  through  the  week.  The  truth 
is  its  people  think  of  these  young  folks  in  per- 
sonal terms;  they  are  not  things  to  be  put  into 
mechanical  filing  cases;  they  are  boys  and  girls 
with  a  life  of  social  impulses  and  ideals  to  be 
ministered  to.  The  graded  Sunday  school  must 
be  saved  from  the  dead  hand  of  academic  mechan- 
ization. If  gradation  means  anything  at  all  it 
means  the  recognition  of  the  fact  that  we  are 
dealing  with  living  factors;  it  must  mean  the 
selection  and  adaptation,  not  alone  of  the  material 
for  lessons,  but  of  all  the  methods  of  work  and 
all  the  ministries  to  the  life  of  youth.    A  beauti- 

63 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

fully  arranged,  chrystallized  curriculum  can  be- 
come the  death  of  a  school  if  it  is  the  object  of 
worship  and  the  end  for  which  the  school  exists. 
Any  curriculum  is  only  a  scheme  of  selecting  and 
adapting  lesson  material  to  the  needs  of  living, 
growing,  developing  persons.  It  must  be  part  of 
the  whole  of  the  curricula  of  life.  That  school 
only  is  fully  graded  which  provides,  not  only 
selected  lesson  material,  but  selected  and  adapted 
activities,  social  interests,  and  emotional  stimuli 
for  the  religious  life  of  youth. 

Looking  over  the  cases  in  general,  one  may 
say  that  when  graded  schools  have  failed,  it  has 
been  for  three  reasons :  they  have  not  understood 
the  full  application  of  the  principle  of  gradation ; 
they  have  relied  too  exclusively  on  the  plan  as 
a  scheme  or  device,  and  they  have  sought  the  aim 
of  scholarly  attainment  rather  than  that  of  per- 
sonal life  development;  they  have  been  dealing 
with  Sunday  school  pupils  as  with  learning 
mechanisms  rather  than  as  living,  growing  young 
folks. 


64 


CHAPTER  VIII 

IS  IT  A  BIBLE  SCHOOL? 

Until  ten  years  ago  the  Protestant  chnrches, 
generally  speaking,  had  but  one  text-book  for  re- 
ligious education.  It  was  the  Bible.  To-day  the 
air  is  full  of  discussions  of  many  text-books, 
many  of  them  in  part,  some  altogether,  inde- 
pendent of  Bible  study.  Indeed,  there  are  some 
who  question  as  to  whether  the  Bible  has  any 
real  values  for  the  religious  education  of  the  child. 
What  are  the  causes  of  changes  so  great! 

Our  changing  conceptions  of  education  have 
brought  about  a  complete  shifting  of  the  place  of 
it  might  have  been  said  that  the  child  existed  for 
the  public  school  or  for  the  curriculum,  so  it  might 
certainly  have  been  truthfully  said  that  in  re- 
ligious education  the  student,  particularly  the 
child,  and  also  the  school  and  the  curriculum,  ex- 
isted for  the  sake  of  the  Bible.  The  greatest  con- 
cern of  parents,  of  pastors,  and  of  Sunday  school 
teachers  was  this.  How  may  the  Bible  be  mag- 
nified and  glorified  through  the  memory  and  mind 
of  the  child?  Beyond  the  text  and  the  letter  we 
scarcely  seemed  to  see  at  all.  We  were  quite 
satisfied  if  the  very  little  ones  knew  these  verses, 
the  Bible  in  religious  education.     Just  as,  once, 

65 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

if  those  next  could  recite  the  names  of  the  divi- 
sions of  this  book,  and  if  those  further  on  were 
familiar  with  its  narratives  and  teachings.  Cate- 
chisms were  arranged  that  certain  texts  might  be 
learned  as  proving  this  doctrine  or  the  other; 
lesson  schemes  were  planned  so  that  all  students 
might  in  a  prescribed  time  travel  through  the 
Bible— such  schemes  of  ^ Agoing  through  the  Scrip- 
tures'' produced  usually  effects  on  the  travelers 
such  as  would  come  from  a  Cook's  tour  taken 
by  force  in  a  sleeping  car  and  by  night.  The 
glorification  of  the  Scriptures  as  the  reason  for 
tbe  existence  of  this  institution  found  expression 
in  the  agitation  to  call  the  Sunday  school  *Hhe 
Bible  School.'' 

THE  INFOKMATIONAL.  IDEAL 

Well,  the  Sunday  school  people  were  not  par- 
ticularly to  blame  for  all  that.  It  was  part  of 
the  common  educational  thought  of  the  last  cen- 
tury. We  did  the  same  thing  in  our  public 
schools,  and  even — breathe  it  softly — in  our  col- 
leges and  universities.  Students  were  of  second- 
ary consideration  to  studies.  Here  was  a  certain 
body  of  truth,  a  certain  science,  literature,  sub- 
ject; the  school  existed  to  teach  that,  not  to  teach 
men  and  women. 

All  that  is  changed  now.  The  student  is  cen- 
tral, fundamental,  determinative.  The  man  is  the 
end  of  education.  Texts,  studies,  sciences  are  all 
but  means,  agencies,  tools.    We  follow  in  this  way 

66 


IS  IT  A  BIBLE  SCHOOL? 

also  in  the  Sunday  school  and  the  home  in  the 
use  of  the  Bible  and  other  material  for  religious 
education.  The  first  question  is,  Whom  have  we 
to  educate?  The  second,  What  are  the  aims  of 
this  education? 

We  shall  proceed  along  safe  lines  and  be  sure 
of  our  ground  if  we  accept,  first  of  all,  this  as 
fundamental,  that  in  the  religious  education  of 
any  person  or  persons,  the  basic,  determining 
principles  will  be  discovered  in  the  laws  of  the 
life  to  be  educated,  that  in  religious  education 
the  object  is  not  the  magnifying  of  this  literature 
or  the  establishment  of  that  doctrine,  but  the 
single,  great  object  is  that  those  who  are  taught 
may  be  set  upon  a  certain  highway  of  life. 

THE  DOMINANT  PURPOSE 

Everything  depends  on  this — the  purpose  of 
your  school  or  whatever  your  educational  agency 
may  be.  If  its  purpose  is  to  turn  out  so  many 
students  annually  who  know  the  names  of  the 
books  of  the  Bible,  and  who  can  repeat  a  pre- 
scribed set  of  Scriptural  passages,  who  can  re- 
count the  deeds  of  Goliath  and  Gideon,  and  who 
know  the  topography  of  the  old  and  the  new 
Jerusalem,  your  course  of  procedure  is  settled 
for  you;  you  have  nothing  to  do  but  to  drill 
these  students  in  the  literature  containing  this 
material.  The  only  questions  remaining  are  those 
that  pertain  to  the  ages  when  children  will  best 
and  most  readily  memorize  this  material  and  the 

67 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

means  by  which  that  process  may  be  made  as  easy 
as  possible. 

But  supposing  we  have  a  larger,  higher  aim 
in  the  Sunday  school?  Supposing  we  are  agreed, 
as  men  are  to-day  fairly  well,  that  the  school, 
together  with  all  other  agencies  of  specific  re- 
ligious instruction,  exists  for  this  purpose,  if  it 
is  a  Christian  school,  to  stimulate  lives  to  the 
Christian  ideal,  to  develop  lives  to  their  fullness, 
to  lead  them  into  the  enjoyment  of  their  spiritual 
heritage,  to  train  them  to  the  fullness  and  effi- 
ciency of  their  powers  under  the  inspiration  of 
the  Christian  ideal,  for  the  sake  of  the  Christian 
aim  and  motive  in  life,  that  the  kingdom  might 
come,  that  men  might  live  as  brothers  and  do  the 
will  of  the  Father  of  us  all. 

TEACHING  PEOPLE 

The  business  of  the  Sunday  school  is  not  to 
teach  literature  or  histoiy,  but  to  teach  boys  and 
girls,  men  and  women,  and  to  teach  them  so  that 
they  may  be  Bible  men  and  women,  avoiding  life's 
failures  and  finding  life 's  fullness  as  both  are  pow- 
erfully pictured  in  the  Bible.  Life  is  the  aim 
of  the  Sunday  school;  a  literature  is  one  of  the 
means  so  far  as  instruction  goes.  Never  let  the 
Bible  get  between  you  and  the  boy,  for  to  do  so 
is  to  make  the  means  greater  than  the  end  and 
to  dishonour  the  Scriptures  by  robbing  them  of 
the  very  service  they  may  render  of  stimulating 
and  leading  lives  out  into  divine  fullness. 

68 


IS  IT  A  BIBLE  SCHOOL! 

Does  some  one  say,  all  tliis  means  dishonour- 
ing the  good  old  Book!  The  way  to  dishonour 
that  Book  is  to  misuse  it.  The  farmer  who  puts 
bis  good  plough  on  a  pedestal  and  bids  his  family 
-worship  it  is  dishonouring  the  plough;  it  is  hon- 
oured when  it  serves,  when  its  share  is  bright 
through  friction  with  the  soil.  One  of  the  gravest 
dangers  to-day  is  that  we  shall  worship  the  Bible 
and  not  let  it  do  its  work;  that  our  bibliolatry 
shall  put  it  on  a  pedestal  and  prevent  it  from 
being  a  power  of  life  to  men.  This  Word  is  a 
tool,  a  means  to  an  end;  the  end,  so  far  as  the 
Sunday  school  is  concerned,  is  the  development 
of  Christian  character  and  kingdom  efficiency  in 
youth. 

The  school  must  turn  out  *^ living  epistles,"  not 
men  who  have  learned  the  Epistles  alone.  The 
school  must  fit  for  the  life  of  to-day.  Literature 
is  but  a  means  to  that  life.  That  literature  which 
we  call  the  Bible  is  the  finest,  noblest,  and  most 
complete  and  perfect  inspiration  to  the  life  of  to- 
day. No  life  can  be  fitted  for  modem  living  un- 
less it  be  furnished  and  inspired  by  the  light 
which  has  led  our  fathers,  unless  it  know  famil- 
iarly the  sources  of  our  inherited  aspirations; 
none  can  be  ready  for  the  civilization  of  to-day 
who  are  ignorant  of  the  literature  that  underlies 
and  has  largely  determined  it  all.  But  the  teach- 
ing of  the  youth  of  to-day  must  be  determined, 
not  by  the  literary  forms  of  yesterday,  but  by  the 
life  needs  of  to-day.    It  must  be  determined  by 

69 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

the  life  this  young  man  or  this  young  woman  will 
have  to  live.  That  accounts  for  the  introduction 
in  the  modern  Sunday  school  of  what  are  called 
** extra-biblical  courses,"  that  is,  courses  of  les- 
sons which  deal  with  history  and  literature  since 
the  times  of  the  Bible.  This  is  only  a  simple 
recognition  of  the  divine  in  all  ages,  an  expres- 
sion of  the  faith  that  God  has  not  left  this  world 
without  a  witness.  It  is  the  attempt  to  give  to 
youth,  for  furnishing  and  light  and  cheer  for  the 
way  of  life,  all  the  rich  heritage  of  the  centuries 
past  in  Christian  heroism  and  Christly  thought 
and  act. 

EELIGION  IN  OUR  DAY 

One  of  the  weaknesses  of  the  average  Sunday 
school  curriculum  is  that  it  leaves  us,  as  children, 
with  the  impression  that  all  the  reality  of  religion 
ceased  with  John  on  Patmos,  and  all  the  important 
things  about  religion  belong  to  the  dim  past. 
Every  boy  ought  to  have  clear,  straightforward 
teaching  on  his  own  personal  problems,  the  mat- 
ters of  home  duties,  school  honour  and  fidelity, 
personal  purity  of  thought,  word,  and  act,  neigh- 
bourly relations,  social  duties,  and  good  citizen- 
ship. He  needs  to  be  taught  all  these  things  in 
terms  of  his  own  day,  by  instances  from  his  own 
days  and  from  the  days  when  these  matters  have 
been  real  to  youth.  He  needs,  too,  specific  in- 
struction in  the  history,  the  organization,  and 
meaning  of  his  own  church.    All  this  means  much 

70 


IS  IT  A  BIBLE  SCHOOL? 

extra-biblical  instruction;  the  one  concern  must 
be  that  it  is  not  foreign  to  the  reality  of  the 
religious  life.  This  school  tests  all  its  teaching 
by  the  needs  of  the  Christian  life.  It  is  a  school 
which  uses  the  Bible;  but  it  is  not  a  Bible  school; 
it  is  the  school  of  the  church  for  the  religious 
life  of  youth. 


71 


CHAPTER  IX 

APPLYING  SOME  EFFICIENCY  TESTS 

When  in  a  factory  a  certain  degree  of  heat  is 
desired  for  certain  permanent  operations,  the 
modem  manager  will  spend  mnch  time  in  testing 
different  kinds  of  fuel.  Costs,  wastes,  time  ele- 
ments, and  results  will  all  be  carefully  marked. 
After  exhaustive  tests  a  type  of  fuel  will  be 
selected  solely  on  the  basis  of  its  ability  at  a  given 
cost  of  energy  and  money  to  produce  certain  re- 
sults. They  would  not  use  rich,  bituminous  coal, 
even  though  it  does  give  a  splendid  quality  of 
gas,  if  they  desired  permanent  heat;  they  would 
not  use  any  kind  of  coal,  even  though  their  fathers 
had  always  used  coal,  if,  under  efficiency  tests, 
electricity  proved  to  be  more  reliable  and  eco- 
nomical. In  a  word,  both  materials  and  methods 
are  determined  by  their  ability  to  produce  desired 
results  in  the  most  economic  and  efficient  manner. 
This  should  be  a  parable  for  the  Sunday  school. 
The  Sunday  school  desires  to  produce  the  re- 
sults of  character  motived  by  religion  and  trained 
to  live  the  social  life  of  the  kingdom.  It  seeks 
to  develop  the  fulhiess  of  the  person  as  a  social, 

72 


APPLYING  SOME  EFFICIENCY  TESTS 

spiritual  being  in  a  spiritual  universe  of  persons. 
The  materials  which  it  will  use  in  this  process 
must  be  determined  wholly  by  that  aim. 

We  have  been  studying  for  some  decades 
methods  of  operation,  the  application  of  means 
to  this  desired  end.  We  have  been  elaborating 
the  machinery  by  which  the  fuel  is  brought  to 
the  boilers,  but  have  paid  scarcely  any  attention 
to  the  greater  question  of  the  selection  of  the 
fuel.  Here  we  have  followed  custom  and  tradi- 
tion. It  has  been  generally  assumed  that  there 
is  but  one  kind  of  material  which  can  be  used 
in  the  Sunday  school  for  the  purpose  of  develop- 
ing the  religious  life,  and  so  we  have  had  the 
slogan,  **the  Bible  the  text-book  of  the  Sunday 
school.'^  Moreover,  we  have  assumed  that  we 
must  use  the  whole  of  the  Bible. 

TOOLS   vs.   PKODUCT 

It  is  time  to  ask  ourselves  whether  a  Sunday 
school  exists  for  its  tools  or  for  its  product,  for 
the  sake  of  the  material  it  uses  or  for  the  sake  of 
the  manhood  it  would  produce;  it  is  time  to  test 
our  material.  If  we  are  afraid  to  test  the  Bible 
as  to  its  power  and  value  in  the  production  of 
Christian  character,  there  is,  then,  all  the  greater 
reason  why  we  should  test  it.  Are  we  afraid  that 
it  will  not  stand  the  test?  Only  let  us  be  sure 
that  our  tests  are  the  right  ones.  We  owe  it  to  our 
high  responsibility  to  ask,  *^Are  we  using  just 
the  material,  only  the  material,  and  all  the  ma- 

73 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

terial  which  will  most  economically  and  efficiently 
produce  the  best  results ! ' ' 

EVALUATING    OUB    LITEKATUKE 

Take  a  few  simple  tests.  (1)  Are  all  parts  of 
the  Bible  of  equal  value  in  the  development  of 
Christian  character  for  life  in  our  day?  It  will 
not  need  a  very  far-searching  examination  to  de- 
termine that  some  parts  are  more  valuable  than 
others.  No  one  will  question  but  that  it  is  more 
important  for  a  child  to  know  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  than  to  know  the  fifteenth  chapter  of 
Joshua,  or  the  seventh  chapter  of  Numbers,  or 
even  the  greater  part  of  Ezekiel. 

(2)  Are  all  parts  of  the  Bible  of  value  in  the 
development  of  Christian  character  for  life  in  our 
day?  (a)  There  are  parts  with  no  relation  to 
personal  character  to-day,  as  for  example,  the  pas- 
sages quoted  above,  and,  more  particularly,  the 
Old  Testament  genealogies,  details  of  ceremonies, 
buildings,  and  some  prophecies,  (b)  There  are 
many  parts  without  value  to  character  for  child- 
hood and  for  youth,  as  for  example,  the  doctrinal 
discussions  of  Paul,  many  parts  of  the  Gospel  of 
John,  the  Song  of  Solomon,  many  of  the  Psalms, 
because  they  relate  to  mature  experience,  and 
most  of  the  Levitical  material,  (c)  There  are 
parts  with  possibilities  of  positive  damage  to  char- 
acter for  youth,  as  for  instance,  immoral  exam- 
ples, apparent  commendation  of  deception,  lying, 
cheating,  and  especially  of  national  brutality  in 

74 


APPLYING  SOME  EFFICIENCY  TESTS 

military  conflicts  and  in  tribal  wars.  Also  tliere 
is  not  infrequently  in  the  Old  Testament  the  ap- 
parent endorsement  of  moral  ideals  which  have 
been  entirely  outgrown.  The  demands  on  char- 
acter to-day  are  far  in  advance  of  those  which 
seemed  to  be  ideal  to  the  Jew,  as  for  instance, 
we  recognize  that  we  need  a  type  of  social  right- 
eousness which  is  certainly  not  the  predominant 
type  in  the  Bible.  If  it  be  answered  that  right- 
eousness undergoes  development  in  the  Bible  and 
that  the  youth  must  be  shown  that  the  earlier 
examples  are  not  for  our  imitation,  but  to  lead 
us  on  to  the  more  perfect  examples  later,  the 
answer  lies  in  the  next  difficulty,  (d)  Many  parts 
of  the  Bible  of  positive  high  value  are  so  im- 
bedded in  ancient,  Oriental  civilization  as  to  be 
wholly  hidden  from  almost  all  students  to-day, 
while  to  this  is  to  be  added  the  great  difficulty 
that  comes  from  dealing  with  translations  from 
the  dead  languages.  Much  Biblical  lore  is  open 
only  by  carefully  sustained  scientific  research  in 
history,  archaeology,  philology,  and  literature.  So 
that  to  get  real  values  out  of  the  Bible,  to  re- 
ceive its  inspirational  value  and  stimulus,  often 
demands  an  exhaustive  preparation  and  a  time- 
and-energy  investment  beyond  the  powers,  the 
will,  and  opportunity  of  the  average  person.  We 
do  well  to  plead  that  in  order  to  give  reality 
to  the  material  in  the  Bible  it  must  be  approached 
by  the  historical  avenues,  but  we  do  not  realize 
that  the  feet  of  the  average  man  or  the  average 

75 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

boy  or  girl  have  never  trodden  these  avenues. 
They  lie  in  an  unknown  land  to  them,  apparently 
infested  with  enemies  and  crowded  with  difficulty, 
while  at  the  end,  from  their  point  of  view,  there 
seems  to  be  only  a  problematic  reward.  The 
events  in  the  Bible  lack  reality  because  the  student 
is  conscious  of  their  remoteness  to  the  life  of  to- 
day and  has  not  the  power  to  carry  himself  into 
the  life  of  that  day. 

THE  MATERIAL  VS,  THE  LESSON" 

"When  the  labour  of  scientific  and  historical  in- 
vestigation is  undertaken,  we  are  by  no  means 
certain  of  securing  the  lessons  we  desire,  for  the 
danger  is  that  then  attention  shall  be  concen- 
trated on  the  scholarly  method,  on  the  minutiaB 
of  the  material  itself,  rather  than  being  permitted 
to  feel  and  see  the  permanent  spiritual  values. 
The  investigator  cannot  feel  the  life  of  the  Bible 
because  he  is  so  easily  choked  with  the  dust  of 
the  grave-clothes  of  archaeology. 

All  this  means  that  there  are  parts  of  the  Bible 
tvhich  involve  large  wastes  intellectually,  morally, 
volitionally,  when  they  are  used  for  inspiration 
for  Christian  character.  All  this  does  not  make 
less  valuable  much  other  material  in  the  Bible. 
There  are  persons  in  its  history  who  are  seen  as 
clearly  as  a  man  on  our  own  street.  Some  great 
principles  are  stated  so  that  they  shine  out  as 
beacons.  Other  great  principles  beam  forth  like 
the  stars  of  the  night,  seen  and  felt  by  the  child 

76 


APPLYING  SOME  EFFICIENCY  TESTS 

as  well  as  by  the  astronomer.  One  does  not 
have  to  be  an  archsBologist  nor  an  expert  philolo- 
gist to  see  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  nor  has  all  the 
labour  of  investigation  succeeded  in  hiding  Him 
from  men  as  the  Ideal  of  all  men.  Neither  have 
our  discoveries  in  literary  criticism  taken  away 
our  sense  of  the  uniqueness  of  Israel  amongst  the 
peoples  of  the  world  and  of  the  place  of  religion 
in  their  lives.  Historical  study  by  the  trained 
student  has  helped  us  to  a  new  appreciation  of 
the  Bible.  The  layman  has  gained  new  values  in 
religion  and  in  inspiration  to  living  by  the  new 
reality  which  has  come  to  these  old  times  and 
scenes. 

THE  BIBLE  AND  CHAEACTEB 

Keeping  in  mind  our  efficiency  test,  we  will 
turn  to  the  Bible  first  and  ask  of  each  section 
as  to  its  power  to  contribute  to  Christian  char- 
acter and  as  to  the  power  which  it  might  have  in 
the  hands  of  a  skilled  interpreter.  It  is  our  duty 
to  evaluate  all  the  Biblical  material  according, 
first,  to  the  general  aim  of  religious  education  and, 
second,  according  to  the  special  needs  of  the  par- 
ticular life  which  we  may  be  seeking  to  develop. 

We  might  very  well,  for  the  sake  of  illustration 
only,  stop  and  ask  a  simple  question,  *^Have  we 
any  expert  testimony  on  the  use  of  this  Biblical 
material  r^  Can  we  look  to  the  record  of  the 
method  of  any  master  teacher,  religious  educator? 
Surely  we  would  be  willing  to  take  the  testimony 
of  the  method  of  Jesus. 

77 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

JESUS  AS  A  TEACHER 

As  a  Teacher,  Jesus  made  few  references  to 
Jewish  literature  and  history;  that  is,  His  refer- 
ences  as  recorded  were  few  as  compared  to  His 
use  of  current  material.  Bear  in  mind  that  He 
was  talking  to  a  people  to  whom  such  historical 
material  ought  to  have  been  as  familiar  as  house- 
hold words,  neither  foreign  nor  ancient,  properly 
speaking.  When  He  did  use  materials  from  their 
history  and  literature.  He  used  only  that  which 
was  most  familiar,  most  simple  and  easily  under- 
stood. He  used  none  of  this  material  in  address- 
ing those  who  were  not  familiar  with  it.  When 
He  talked  with  the  Samaritan  woman  He  talked 
about  the  things  with  which  the  Samaritans  were 
familiar.  But  Jesus  did  use  largely  and  freely 
the  material  closest  at  hand — wayside  weeds, 
workmen,  the  farmer,  the  fisher,  the  merchant,  the 
beggar.  His  addresses  and  His  teaching  must 
often  have  sounded  like  a  personified  edition  of 
^^ current  events'^  made  glorious  with  a  spiritual 
purpose. 

Above  all,  when  Jesus  used  historical  and  lit- 
erary allusions  from  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  He 
had  always  a  definite  purpose,  not  to  make  men 
acquainted  with  those  Scriptures,  but  to  use  them 
as  means  to  the  development  of  spiritual  ideals. 
He  did  not  teach  Hebrew  literature;  He  taught 
people. 

Experience  will  furnish  to  every  one  many  in- 
stances of  the  efficiency  value  of  much  material 

78 


APPLYING  SOME  EFFICIENCY  TESTS 

outside  the  Bible.  Some  of  the  great  moral  crises 
in  our  lives  have  been  met  by  light  from  home, 
or  street,  or  every  day,  by  the  power  of  a  friend  ^s 
life,  or  the  illuminating  standard  of  a  Livingstone, 
a  Gordon,  a  Florence  Nightingale.  God  did  not 
pass  out  of  His  world  with  the  close  of  Scrip- 
tural history.  The  test  of  the  value  of  material 
is  not  whether  it  is  bound  in  leathern  covers  and 
divided  into  chapters  and  verses ;  it  is  not  whether 
it  was  written  before  70  A.  D.,  or  after;  it  is  not 
whether  it  is  in  English,  or  in  Hebrew,  but  it  is 
whether  it  is  a  word  of  life  to  our  lives,  whether 
it  joins  the  great  cloud  of  witnesses  urging  us  to 
run  with  patience  the  race  that  is  set  before  us. 
We  dare  not  take  this  or  that  material  because 
it  is  handed  to  us  by  some  organization  or  be- 
cause it  was  used  by  our  forefathers.  We  must 
*'test  all  things''  to  discover  that  which  will  do 
the  most  good.  For  if  engineers  are  bound  to 
take  much  time  to  discover  the  fuel  that  is  best 
for  the  production  of  heat,  how  much  more  time 
must  we  spend  to  seek  to  develop  religious  lives ! 


79 


CHAPTER  X 


FIRST  THINGS  FIRST 


There  was  a  man  once  of  wliom  it  was  said  that 
because  he  loved  a  certain  nation  he  built  for  them 
a  church;  when  will  it  come  that  we  who  profess 
to  love  the  children  so  much  will  build  for  them 
a  church,  a  suitable  aid  to  their  religious  lives! 
If  we  really  mean  all  that  we  are  saying  to-day 
of  the  importance  of  the  early  youth  period  in 
religious  development,  if  we  stand  by  our  esti- 
mates of  the  relative  values  of  gaining  the  children 
and  gaining  adults,  why  do  we  leave  the  children 
without  adequate  provision  for  their  religious 
well-being?  If  you  think  of  the  millions  going 
into  splendid  church  edifices,  designed  for  weekly 
worship  by  adults,  and  the  pittances  wrung  out 
for  the  buildings  for  children,  does  it  not  seem 
as  though  the  church  belied  her  words  about  the 
children,  as  though  she  determined  to  spare  no 
pains  to  care  for  the  nurture  of  the  adult  while 
leaving  the  children  to  take  care  of  themselves? 
She  often  seems  to  say,  **  Strong  meat  for  men 
and  any  crumbs  and  scraps  for  babes." 

80 


FIRST  THINGS  FIEST 

Testing  Church  Efficiency  by  Sunday  School 
Buildings 

We  will  never  seem  to  be  really  in  earnest 
in  our  anxiety  for  the  religious  life  of  youth  until 
we  give  evidence  of  our  endeavours  in  concrete 
ways.  If  it  is  worth  more  to  save  a  child  than 
to  redeem  an  adult,  why  not  spend  more  at  it? 
If  we  do  believe  that  the  kingdom  would  come 
if  we  might  have  and  hold  all  the  children,  why 
not  make  that  our  first  business  ?  Yet  where  will 
you  find  a  church  that  spends  anywhere  near  as 
much  on  the  child  as  on  the  adult?  Where  will 
you  find  a  church  that  really  does  make  its  first 
business  that  of  keeping  the  children  for  the  king- 
dom? Compare  the  cost  even  of  the  cushions  in 
the  church  building  with  the  whole  equipment  for 
the  Sunday  school !  Compare  the  cost  of  the  choir 
with  the  expenditure  for  teaching  the  young !  Lay 
alongside  the  money  spent  for  the  religious  en- 
joyment, often  the  purely  aesthetic  recreation  of 
the  adult,  that  which  the  church  spends  for  the 
great  purpose  of  training  children  into  Christian 
living.  Will  not  our  church  budgets  rise  up  and 
condemn  the  churches  of  this  generation?  Shall 
we  not  stand  convicted  of  the  saddest  form  of 
selfishness,  spiritual  greed,  when  our  niggardly 
appropriations  for  the  Sunday  school  are  com- 
pared with  our  free  spending  on  ourselves? 

Every  time  a  thoughtful  person  stands  before 
a  splendid  new  church  building  he  must  surely 
ask.  What  plant  is  provided  here  for  the  religious 
«  81 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

life  of  childhood  and  youth?  How  pitiable,  nay 
shameful,  is  the  usual  answer!  Frequently  it 
runs  like  this,  *^  Well,  we  needed  so  much  room  for 
the  church  auditorium  that  we  had  to  put  the 
Sunday  school  rooms  down  stairs.''  If  a  church 
was  fully  loyal  to  its  avowed  faith  in  the  im- 
portance of  childhood,  it  would  make  the  child 
central  and  determinative ;  it  would  build  the  plant 
for  the  child-life  first,  and  allow  adult  life  to 
adjust  itself  to  that.  Imagine  a  church  thus 
logical  in  its  building  plans.  Men  would  laugh 
at  first;  preachers  who  live  only  for  oratorical 
fame  would  scoff,  but  soon  the  world  would  recog- 
nize that  here  was  an  institution  setting  about 
its  business  seriously.  It  would  recognize  that 
the  church,  knowing  it  had  to  grow  character,  de- 
termined to  do  its  best  work,  to  use  to  the  full  its 
best  resources  right  in  the  growing  period. 

If  you  would  grow  Christian  men  and  women 
you  must  grow  them  in  the  growing  period.  The 
growing  part  of  our  plant  we  crowd  off  in  a  corner, 
and  we  are  likely  to  put  the  patching,  repair  shop 
out  in  the  front.  Now,  what  would  happen,  in  the 
long  course  of  the  years,  to  any  church  that  set 
its  service  to  youth  first  in  expenditure,  in  equip- 
ment, and  in  personal  investment?  Would  it  not 
so  succeed  in  growing  the  right  life  that  it  would 
not  only  have  as  adherents  all  those  who  came  up 
into  adult  life,  but  also  it  would  have  them  trained 
and  ready  for  its  service?  The  Sunday  school 
and  all  the  agencies  for  the  life  of  childhood  would 

82 


FIEST  THINGS  FIEST 

not  only  develop  Christian  character,  but,  what  is 
an  essential  part  thereof,  they  would  train  and 
grow  the  church  of  the  future,  holding  to  itself 
in  familiar  gratitude  all  the  services  of  its  chil- 
dren. The  church  that  saves  the  children  gains  the 
world. 

Testing  Efficiency  by  Physical  Equipment 

It  is  true  that  one  must  keep  the  body  under, 
but  that  does  not  mean  that  you  can  succeed  in 
eliminating  it.  Talking  of  'Hhis  vile  body"  and 
singing  of  ^4he  soul"  will  not  change  the  fact  that 
this  body  and  the  whole  range  of  physical  condi- 
tions have  a  great  deal  more  to  do  with  our  spir- 
itual development  than  we  are  ready  to  recognize. 
It  is  a  good  thing  to  begin  at  the  beginning.  The 
finest  superstructure  must  after  all  put  its  feet 
into  dirt.  The  best  Sunday  school  teaching  begins 
in  rightly  determining  and  organizing  physical 
conditions. 

Many  a  teacher  has  come  to  the  school  with  a 
well-prepared  lesson,  with  earnest  desire  to  ac- 
complish good,  and  buoyed  up  by  a  sense  of  the 
great  possibilities  in  her  work,  only  afterwards 
to  leave  the  schoolroom  utterly  discouraged  and 
disheartened,  and  this  not  because  there  was  any 
unusual  degree  of  depravity  in  her  scholars  or 
defect  in  her  general  pedagogical  method,  but  on 
account  of  the  neglect  of  certain  factors  which  are 
never  negligible.  I  believe  that  at  least  as  many 
good  lessons  have  been  robbed  of  their  best  fruit- 

83 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

age  by  over-heating  and  under-lighting,  by  jani- 
tors and  church  building  committees,  as  can  be 
laid  to  the  charge  of  incompetent  and  indolent 
teachers.  The  physical  condition  is  an  educa- 
tional condition  and  contributes  to  the  sum  of 
pedagogical  factors  and  forces.  "Where  the  chil- 
dren come  to  school  hungry  it  is  hard  to  get  them 
to  think  of  the  Bread  of  Life,  or  where,  as  is  very 
often  the  case,  they  come  surfeited,  it  is  exceed- 
ingly difficult  to  get  them  to  think  of  anything 
at  all. 

The  purpose  of  your  teaching  in  the  school  is 
to  secure  the  reaction  of  the  whole  life  of  the  pupil 
to  certain  stimuli.  The  stimulus  of  your  verbal 
appeal  is  relatively  insignificant  beside  that  of 
the  things  felt,  seen,  smelt,  tasted,  heard  in  class- 
room or  schoolroom.  The  din  of  other  classes, 
the  confused  noise  made  by  volatile  and  voluble 
officials,  the  lugubrious  texts  in  clamourous  col- 
ours on  the  walls,  the  odours  of  bad  oxygen  are 
all  importunate  at  the  doors  of  the  pupiPs  senses. 
To  them  your  voice  is  only  one  physical  appeal. 
If  you  are  wise  you  will  not  seek  to  compete  with 
other  claims  to  admission,  but  since  these  claims 
are  in  the  power  of  your  direction  you  will  secure 
their  co-operation  with  you.  It  is  possible,  as 
many  a  bright,  sunny,  cheerful,  harmonious  Sun- 
day school  room  or  class  room  to-day  testifies, 
to  make  every  physical  factor  a  servant  of  the 
spiritual  end. 

It  is  not  enough  to  prepare  your  lesson  at 
84 


FIEST  THINGS  FIEST 

your  desk  at  home.  The  wise  teacher  will  also 
prepare  the  plaee  for  its  learning.  Go  to  the 
schoolroom  outside  of  the  school  hours.  Ask 
yourself  how  its  surroundings  would  have  im- 
pressed you  as  a  child.  Get  your  helpers  together 
and  rest  not  until  that  schoolroom  or  classroom 
is  saying  every  day,  louder  than  you  can  speak 
and  in  a  manner  more  lasting  than  your  message 
can  be :  ^'  God  is  love,  life  is  full  of  opportunity, 
religion  is  a  part  of  the  very  best  that  we  know 
or  feel  or  think.  ^' 

Physical  Prepakation 

There  is  a  side  of  this,  too,  that  applies  per- 
sonally to  the  teacher.  Often  your  Sunday  morn- 
ing vexation  may  be  traced  to  your  Saturday 
night's  relaxation.  Spiritual  consecration  cannot 
make  up  for  the  lack  of  attention  to  physical 
conditions.  While  some  sickly  saints  have  helped 
the  world  to  get  well,  and  some  of  the  most 
helpful  have  suffered  most  in  health,  they  have 
done  that  work  under  a  tremendous  handicap,  and 
no  one  is  excusable  for  taking  unnecessary  handi- 
caps. Take  your  whole  self  to  the  school  and  class 
and  your  whole  self  at  its  very  best,  for  what- 
ever is  lacking  in  johysical  vigor  will  be  lacking 
in  mental  alertness  and  in  spiritual  deficiency. 

We  have  forever  left  the  time  when  we  can 
think  of  man  as  consisting  of  three  separate  de- 
partments :  body,  mind,  and  spirit.  He  is  a  unity, 
a  psycho-physical  being,  his  whole  life  goes  to- 

85 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

gether,  the  body  with  the  soul;  one  aspect  is 
neglected  at  the  expense  of  all  others.  Teaching, 
education,  has  to  do,  not  with  minds  as  separate 
entities,  not  with  spirits,  yet  there  are  Sunday 
schools  and  churches  crowded  with  people  who 
are  *Hhere  in  spirit  alone.''  It  has  to  do  with 
the  whole  being;  its  success  depends  on  obedience 
to  the  laws  of  the  whole  being  in  the  measure  in 
which  every  factor  of  body  and  mind  contribute 
and  co-operate  to  the  desired  end.  It  is  a  good 
thing  to  secure  the  harmonious  co-operation  of 
those  basic  factors  which  we  call  physical. 

This  suggests  also  the  wisdom  of  training  the 
physical  life  of  the  pupil  in  the  school.  If  the 
Sunday  school  is  to  train  and  develop  into  full- 
ness and  beauty  of  religious  character  and  into 
efficiency  in  religious  service,  it  has  to  train  those 
who  are  bodies,  physical  beings  as  well  as  spir- 
itual beings.  It  has  to  train  in  the  morality  of 
good  health,  and  it  is  training,  too,  those  who  are 
in  the  period  of  life  when  the  physical  is  the 
most  evident  and  is  the  point  of  immediate  in- 
terest and  contact. 

If  you  are  preparing  your  lesson  with  a  group 
of  dear  little  souls  in  your  mind,  there  will  be 
a  serious  hiatus  between  your  presentation  and 
your  preparation  when  you  come  to  give  that 
lesson  to  a  bunch  of  dynamic  physical  phenomena. 
We  teachers  must  learn  to  think  of  our  people 
as  playing,  muscle-developing  creatures.  The 
righteousness  they  need  is  that  which  can  find 

86 


FIRST  THINGS  FIRST 

physical  expression.  A  boy's  theories  on  the 
waving  of  palms  and  the  striking  of  harps  will 
take  care  of  themselves  if  he  can  get  the  practice 
of  righteousness  in  the  running  of  a  race,  the 
striking  of  a  ball,  the  doing  of  the  chores,  and 
all  the  expressional  activities  of  his  normal  living, 
if  these  can  be  inspired  and  filled  with  motives 
that  are  eternal  and  divine. 

Testing  Efficiency  by  the  Pictuke  Appeal 

Blank  walls  do  not  leave  blank  mental  im- 
pressions. Their  very  barrenness,  bleakness, 
often  their  dingy  dirtiness,  makes  a  decidedly  un- 
desirable impression.  It  takes  very  little  sug- 
gestion to  bring  back  to  my  mind  vividly  the 
blotchy,  apparently  mouldy,  calcimined  walls  of 
the  bam-like  Sunday  school  room  where  I  sat  as 
a  small  boy.  Those  walls,  desolate  save  for  hid- 
eous placards  of  Scripture  texts,  were  tremen- 
dously active  instructors  to  that  little  chap.  It 
was  hard  to  tell  which  did  most  harm,  the  melan- 
choly empty  spaces,  which  seemed  to  say  that 
piety  must  savour  of  death  and  desolation,  or 
those  texts  done  in  hideous  antagonisms  of  green 
and  blue  and  violet,  which  asserted  that  God  never 
let  me  get  out  of  His  sight. 

If  you  have  ever  seen  children  looking  with 
hungry  eyes  at  billboards,  and  if  you  have 
watched  them  before  some  fine  picture  in  a  store 
window  or  an  art  gallery;  if  you  have  seen  their 
eyes  as  they  looked  at  a  fine  window  in  the 

87 


EFFICIENCY  EST  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

cliiircli,  yon  will  know  that  the  blank  spaces  on 
the  walls  of  church  or  Sunday  school  room  or 
class  room  simply  ought  to  spell  opportunity  to 
teacherSc 

We  already  recognize  and  use  freely  the  power- 
ful aid  of  the  picture  in  teaching.  We  see  how 
through  eye-gate  the  life  is  reached  when  we  take 
the  small  lesson  pictures  into  the  class;  but  we 
have  not  yet  grasped  the  possibilities  in  one  or 
several  large  pictures  which  would  be  so  rich  in 
meaning,  so  inspiring  in  ideal  elements,  that  they 
could  be  set  for  long  periods  before  large  groups 
of  students.  No  one  ever  tires  of  a  really  good 
picture.  One  goes  back  time  after  time  through 
years  to  sit  down  before  the  masterpieces,  before 
the  Holy  Family,  before  a  Turner,  a  Corot,  a  Con- 
stable, or  a  Murillo.  You  come  away  enriched, 
strengthened,  lifted  up.  You  need  no  explanation, 
no  story  about  the  picture;  a  lecturer  in  the  gal- 
lery would  be  an  impertinence.  So  with  some  fine 
paintings  in  churches  and  some  fine  windows. 

Fortunately,  excellent  reproductions  of  the 
great  paintings  are  available  to  remote  communi- 
ties and  to  people  of  very  limited  means  by  the 
aid  of  reproductions  and  photographs.  It  is  not 
necessary  to  go  to  London  to  see  the  Holy  Family ; 
very  fair  colour  reproductions  come  at  a  relatively 
small  cost.  You  do  not  need  many  such  pictures ; 
you  can  afford  to  leave  large  spaces,  margins, 
about  them;  they  are  the  kind  of  pictures  that 

88 


FIEST  THINGS  FIRST 

flow  over  into  margins  and  make  the  blank  spaces 
about  them  eloquent  and  beautiful. 

One  thinks  first  of  all  of  Biblical  pictures  for 
such  uses;  large  ones  for  the  walls  of  the  larger 
rooms,  and  smaller  ones  for  the  class  rooms.  But 
the  range  of  selection  may  well  be  very  much 
wider.  A  Sunday  school  room  ought  to  have  in 
it,  not  only  imaginary  presentations  of  Peter  and 
Paul  and  John;  it  ought  to  have  the  portraits  of 
men  who  have  made  Christian  history,  the  heroes 
and  ideals  of  modern  times,  such  as  Livingstone, 
Lincoln,  Chinese  Gordon,  Phillips  Brooks,  and 
others  who  have  served  their  fellows.  Depend 
upon  it,  you  can  often  get  the  highest  religious 
teaching  through  what  a  child  will  think  and 
what  he  will  ask  as  he  looks  on  such  faces.  Then, 
1  would  use  also  some  subjects  from  daily  life — 
those  that  show  deeds  of  kindness,  devotion ;  those 
that  touch  deeply  the  higher  motives;  those  that 
show  home  and  daily  life  in  the  light  of  religion. 
Even  some  natural  scenes  have  religious  power  to 
help.  These  are  all  mentioned,  not  to  disparage 
the  Scriptural  pictures,  for  we  cannot  get  along 
without  them,  but  to  suggest  how  large  is  the 
material  we  may  use. 

Now,  it  is  not  necessary  that  the  use  of  our 
walls  in  such  a  helpful  way  shall  involve  large 
expense.  We  need  especially  to  beware  of  the 
temptation  to  get  expensive  frames  and  mounts; 
the  frame  should  never  attract  from  the  picture. 

89 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

Often  the  best  pictures  may  be  placed  on  walls 
without  any  frame,  with  nothing  beyond  a  strip 
or  narrow  border  of  some  material,  as  wood  or 
even  paper.  But  be  sure  that  your  pictures  are 
worth  looking  at  many  times;  that  they  really 
make  one  feel  their  spiritual  worth  and  meaning, 
and  you  have  then  turned  your  walls  into  re- 
ligious teachers,  into  allies  in  your  work. 


90 


CHAPTER  XI 

ACHIEVING  THE   EELIGIOUS  PUEPOSE   OF   THE   SUNDAY 
SCHOOL 

The  question  often  arises,  especially  with  those 
who  have  become  accustomed  to  thinking  of  edu- 
cation in  the  modem  way,  whether  the  adoption 
of  the  educational  idea  in  the  Sunday  school  will 
not  defeat  the  religious  purpose  of  the  school. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  the  school  has 
a  religious  purpose.  We  must  go  farther  and  say 
that  its  purpose  is  wholly  a  religious  one.  But 
when  we  ask  precisely  what  is  the  religious  pur- 
pose of  the  Sunday  school,  the  necessary  answer 
becomes  illuminating.  We  have  to  say  that  the 
religious  purpose  of  the  school,  as  indeed  of  the 
whole  church,  is  just  the  purpose  that  the  Master 
stated  as  the  end  of  His  coming:  ''I  am  come 
that  they  might  have  life,  and  that  they  might 
have  it  more  abundantly. ' '  The  religious  purpose 
of  the  Sunday  school  is  a  whole  life,  a  life  in  its 
spiritual  completeness  and  fullness,  for  the  pupil. 
The  Sunday  school,  as  the  specific  agency  of  the 
church  for  the  religious  education  of  the  people, 
if  we  borrow  current-educational  terminology  we 
say,  it  exists  that  they  may  be  trained ;  that  their 
lives  may  be  developed  to  spiritual  fullness,  to 

91 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

perfect  adjustment  to  their  whole  environment  in 
its  infinitude;  that  they  may  receive  their  whole 
heritage,  the  spiritual  wealth  of  all  ages ;  that  they 
may  be  brought  into  fullness  of  living,  and  to  the 
giving  of  a  full  life  for  others. 

The  Sunday  school  is  an  educational  institu- 
tion with  an  evangelistic  aim ;  it  seeks  the  steady, 
systematic  development  of  the  life  of  the  child  into 
the  consciousness  and  fullness  of  Christian  char- 
acter and  the  training  of  all  its  people  into  effi- 
ciency and  joy  in  Christian  service.  We  are  all 
agreed  to-day  that  its  method  is  educational;  we 
are  all  agreed  that  its  aim  is  evangelistic,  that 
is  to  say,  that  it  seeks  to  lead  to  the  way  of  living 
and  thinking,  the  habits  of  life  and  thought  that 
see  life  as  a  good  thing  because  it  is  God's,  this 
world  as  good  because  it  is  His,  and  the  future  as 
bright  with  promise  because  it  has  the  possibility 
of  bringing  His  will  to  be  done  and  making  His 
love  more  manifest. 

THE    EVANGELISTIC    AIM 

Yet  in  seeking  the  evangelistic  end  with  the 
educational  means,  we  are  in  danger  between  a 
barren  intellectualism  on  one  hand  and  a  sterile 
emotionalism  on  the  other.  We  so  easily  fall  into 
thinking  of  all  things  religious  as  having  to  do 
with  the  emotions,  the  *' heart"  alone. 

There  are  schools  calling  themselves  educa- 
tional institutions,  with  much  dignity  in  the 
declaration^  which  are  simply  cold,  lifeless  pieces 

92 


ACHIEVING  THE  RELIGIOUS  PURPOSE 

of  mechanism  for  retailing  quantities  of  informa- 
tion. They  are  as  far  from  being  educational 
as  a  penny-in-the-slot  milk-vending  machine  is 
from  being  maternal.  There  are  schools  that 
imagine  they  are  ardently  evangelistic  because  at 
stated  periods  they  become  roaring  volcanoes  of 
emotional  excitement;  usually  they  get  about  as 
near  to  evangelism  as  a  steam  calliope  can  get  to 
a  symphony. 

Education  is  leading  life  into  fullness;  evan- 
gelism is  revealing  the  good  news  of  the  glory  of 
the  life  that  is  ours  as  the  children  of  God.  Edu- 
cation without  that  vision  of  the  higher,  fuller, 
divine  life  is  a  stub  road  with  a  terminus  that 
leaves  you  in  the  bitter  desert  of  unfulfilled  de- 
sires. Evangelism  without  the  firm,  clear  track 
of  educational  development  from  grace  to  grace 
is  an  invitation  to  reach  the  glory  of  the  stars 
by  spasmodic  leaps  into  the  air. 

Both  have  to  do  with  life ;  one  has  its  promise, 
its  prophecy;  the  other  has  its  process  and  indi- 
cates its  progress.  Keeping  both  close  to  life, 
to  the  lives  of  the  people  with  whom  you  deal, 
saves  both  from  futility,  co-ordinates  and  unifies. 
When  teacher  and  every  other  worker  in  the 
school  is  seeking  steadily,  solely  to  aid  each  life 
toward  the  fullness  of  the  ideal  life,  to  the  realiza- 
tion of  the  measure  of  the  fullness  of  the  stature 
of  Christ,  then  all  will  be  saved  from  the  fatuous 
notion  that  packing  a  head  with  congealed  veraci- 
ties will  cool  the  hot  passions  of  youth  and  from 

93 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

the  fatal  mistake  of  supposing  tliat  a  heart  over- 
flowing with  feeling  will  keep  the  feet  in  the  ways 
of  trnth  and  love. 

He  only  is  an  educator  who  has  the  evangel- 
istic vision  of  the  fullness  of  life;  he  only  is  an 
evangelist  who  broods  over  the  life  to  bring  it  into 
that  fullness  by  the  steady  processes  that  we  call 
education.  The  one  thing  we  are  doing  in  the 
Sunday  school  is  to  aid  and  inspire,  lead  and  stim- 
ulate lives  into  their  spiritual  heritage  and  full- 
ness. We  do  well  to  insist  on  accurate  training 
in  religious  knowledge,  but  only  as  knowledge 
sanctified  by  love  builds  up  for  life.  We  do  well 
to  steadily  seek  to  improve  the  methods  and  en- 
large and  adjust  the  curricula  of  our  schools,  but 
only  as  all  shall  serve  as  means  and  agencies  to 
open  the  eyes  to  the  vision  and  lead  the  feet  in  the 
way  of  the  glorious  life. 

A  SUFFICIENT   AIM 

No  wonder  many  teachers  find  their  work  a 
dreary  round;  no  wonder  they  are  unable  to  en- 
dure the  ebullitions  of  youthful  vitality.  They 
come  to  school  with  a  nice,  bulky  package  of 
facts  which  they  wish  to  install  in  each  of  the 
more  or  less  commodious  intellectual  warehouses 
which  constitute  the  class.  The  teacher  thinks  of 
them  as  depositories  for  information.  She  finds 
the  warehouses  persist  in  wiggling,  contrary  to 
all  known  laws  for  warehouses.  She  is  discour- 
aged because  they  are  alive ;  they  are  so  far  from 

94 


ACHIEVING  THE  EELIGIOUS  PUEPOSE 

being  dead  that  she  is  persuaded  they  are  de- 
praved. She  can  only  wait  patiently  until  the 
bell  rings  and  she  can  carry  away  her  freight  of 
facts. 

The  life  aim  in  the  school  makes  ns  rejoice  in 
life,  keeps  us  close  to  these  living,  wiggling  be- 
ings, and  teaches  ns  to  be  patient  with  life  and 
learn  of  it,  leading  it  out  into  the  devotion  of  its 
powers  to  divine  ends.  Work  in  a  school  becomes 
worth  while,  high,  grand,  holy,  when  you  see  that 
facts,  ideas,  machinery,  methods,  lessons,  exer- 
cises, all  are  but  means  to  an  end  and  not  ends  in 
themselves,  and  the  end  is  this,  that  these  lives 
may  become  like  His  life,  their  living  together 
His  kingdom,  and  all  their  working  the  doing  of 
His  will,  that  you  are  educating  slowly,  gradually, 
by  leading,  nurture,  inspiration,  aiding  these  lives 
into  that  glad  and  glorious  fullness  of  the  life 
divine. 

The  Sunday  school  has  as  its  religious  pur- 
pose what  is  really  the  fully  orbed  purpose  of  any 
complete  education,  a  full  life — the  full  life  of 
man  as  the  child  of  God.  Now,  if  the  Sunday 
school  would  accomplish  this  religious  purpose, 
there  is  no  question  as  to  whether  the  educational 
method  is  the  best  one;  it  is  the  only  possible  one. 
Since  the  purpose  is  the  development  of  a  life,  the 
only  method  you  can  use  is  the  vital,  the  genetic, 
the  educational  method.  The  indictment  resting 
against  the  old  type  of  Sunday  school  is  that  it 
did  not  accomplish  its  religious  purpose;  it  did 

95 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

not  develop  lives  to  tlieir  spiritual  fullness  and 
their  religious  social  efficiency ;  it  did  not  give  full 
lives  and  capable  servants  to  the  church  and  the 
wprld.  We  to-day  adopt  the  educational  method 
because  it  is  life's  way  of  leading  to  fullness  of 
life.    It  is  God's  law. 

Having  before  us,  then,  this  clear  purpose,  this 
religious  aim — to  develop  the  lives  of  the  pupils 
in  the  Sunday  school,  under  religious  inspirations 
and  dynamics,  to  spiritual  fullness — just  how  shall 
this  be  done  ?  How  shall  we  achieve  the  religious 
purposes  of  the  Sunday  school?  Eemember  we 
are  dealing  with  lives,  not  with  lay  figures.  We 
must  give  up  the  old  figures  of  speech  of  children 
as  wax,  as  clay.  They  are  neither  to  be  moulded 
nor  chiseled;  they  are  lives  to  be  lived  out. 

ATMOSPHERE 

The  first  determinative  factor  in  any  life  is 
atmosphere  and  environment.  Many  a  school  is 
attempting  a  spiritual  work  in  an  atmosphere 
calculated  to  produce  spiritual  disease  and  death, 
with  an  environment  thoroughly  nonspiritual. 
The  concrete  in  environment  impresses  the  child 
most  deeply,  and  the  concrete  must  be  made  rich 
with  spiritual  meaning.  The  only  way  children 
get  spiritual  meanings  is  through  the  things  seen, 
heard,  and  physically  felt.  Good  work  has  been 
done  in  bad  surroundings,  but  the  good  work  has 
been  handicapped  thereby,  when  it  might  have 
been  helped  by  attention  to  the  surroundings. 

96 


ACHIEVING  THE  KELIGIOUS  PURPOSE 

Mildewed  walls,  broken  windows,  lurid,  hideous 
placard  texts,  basement  class  rooms  where  chil- 
dren keep  company  with  cobwebs,  are  as  fit  for 
developing  lives  as  a  dark,  damp  cellar  for  ma- 
turing roses  and  poppies.  If  God  is  light,  and 
religion  is  love  and  beauty,  then  let  the  life  de- 
veloping in  religion  have  goodly  sights,  lovely 
surroundings,  light,  beauty,  and  cheer.  These 
things  children  see  remain  when  the  things  we 
say  have  long  been  forgotten. 

Second,  and  more  important  than  ever  the  edi- 
fice, is  the  environment  of  personality.  What  sort 
of  people  is  your  school  placing  around  young, 
susceptible  lives?  Are  they  healthy-spirited  peo- 
ple! Do  they  live  so  that  youth  can  take  them 
as  safe  examples,  as  trustworthy  living  evangels! 
Are  they  efficient  in  really  living  the  religious 
life? 

Then,  what  of  the  environment  of  the  school 
life  and  order?  Is  the  school  as  an  organization 
morally  efficient?  Is  it  absolutely  honest  in  its 
dealings  with  all  its  students,  in  its  business  re- 
lations, as  in  paying  bills,  and  is  it  honest  in 
trying  to  do  its  work  in  the  best  ways  possible? 
This  is  the  environment  that  makes  Christian 
character.  Does  the  church  form  a  social  or- 
ganization about  them?  If  they  are  His  children, 
they  should  be  in  His  family  circle.  Somehow 
we  should  more  and  more  cultivate  in  the  Sunday 
school  the  sense  of  all  its  people  belonging  to 
the  Church,  to  the  family  of  God. 
7  97 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

FOOD  FOR  LIFE 

Next,  the  developing  life  needs — needs,  of 
course,  parallel  in  time  to  those  already  mentioned 
—suitable  nurture,  food.  It  needs  the  satisfying 
of  mind  and  imagination  with  ideals,  with  visions, 
with  heroes,  and  expressions  of  great  hopes;  it 
needs  that  which  is  food  for  the  thinking  life, 
the  understanding  of  life's  relations  and  mean- 
ings. This  food  must  be  suited  to  the  life  period 
— the  meat  for  the  men,  the  milk  for  the  babes. 
All  may  eat  at  the  same  table,  but  not  all  will 
eat  the  same  kind  of  food  unless  we  desire  to 
produce  spiritual  dyspepsia  in  the  young  and  dis- 
gust in  the  old. 

If  you  would  have  this  life  grow  as  His  life 
grew,  as  all  things  in  the  divine  order  grow — in 
beauty  day  by  day — then  you  will  be  most  careful 
to  know  the  characteristics  of  the  child 's  religion ; 
you  will  not  expect  a  man's  experience  from  a 
child's  heart,  and  you  will  not  say  to  the  little 
children,  as  we  have  been  doing,  *^  Except  ye  be- 
come as  old  people,  you  cannot  enter  the  king- 
dom." You  will  ask,  in  selecting  the  material, 
the  food  for  this  developing  life,  *^What  are  the 
appetites,  needs,  spontaneous  interests  of  this  life 
at  this  or  that  time?" 

LIFE    CRISES 

Next,  arrange  all  material  and  work  looking 
toward  the  great  developmental  periods  of  the  life. 
Without  going  into  detailed  discussions  of  the 

98 


ACHIEVING  THE  RELIGIOUS  PURPOSE 

great  periods  of  the  developing  life,  we  are  all 
agreed  in  recognizing  the  primary  importance  of 
that  which  ushers  in  the  years  of  adolescence.  At 
this  time,  somewhat  near  the  age  of  thirteen, 
marked  changes  take  place  in  the  whole  life.  The 
greatest  of  these  changes  may  well  and  properly 
be  the  setting  of  the  whole  life  definitely  toward 
goodness  and  truth,  toward  God  and  His  way  of 
life  and  the  relating  and  co-ordinating  of  the  life 
to  the  definite  activities  and  organizations  of  re- 
ligion. Perhaps  it  is  not  best,  however,  to  speak 
or  to  think  of  this  so  much  as  a  great  change, 
but  rather  as  a  definite  step  forward  in  a  course 
already  adopted — as  coming  to  one's  self-realiza- 
tion as  the  child  of  God.  In  whatever  way  we 
may  think  of  this  period's  changes,  whatever  our 
philosophy  may  be,  we  ought  to  see  to  it  that 
at  this  time,  when  the  life  is  consciously  relating 
itself  to  its  whole  world,  it  ought  to  rightly  re- 
late itself  to  all  that  is  of  the  higher  life. 

Therefore,  build  the  curriculum  and  arrange 
the  activities  of  the  school  with  these  years  espe- 
cially in  mind,  so  that  the  life  is  fitted  and  fur- 
nished for  this  epoch,  so  that  the  youth  becomes 
as  easily  and  naturally — one  might  almost  say  in- 
evitably— identified  with  his  church  as  he  steps  out 
into  the  social  life  at  this  time. 

ACTION- 

The  last  need  in  a  course  of  study  designed 
to  carry  out  the  full  educational  purpose  of  the 

99 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

school  is  the  provision  of  adequate,  suitable  ex- 
pressional  activities,  the  motorization  of  the  ma- 
terial of  instruction.  Consider  no  lesson  taught 
until  you  have  provided  for  the  reaction  of  the 
life  toward  it,  until  it  is  somehow  lived.  No 
truth  is  possessed  until  in  some  way  or  another 
it  is  practiced.  No  lesson  is  learned  until  it  is 
lived.  This  necessity  of  the  reaction  of  the  life 
toward  that  which  is  being  learned  affords  one 
of  the  keenest  tests  of  our  teaching.  It  makes 
evident  at  once  the  folly  of  teaching  that  which 
cannot  be  somehow  put  into  life;  it  eliminates 
much  of  our  teaching  of  abstractions  and  of  the 
experiences  of  full  life  to  little  children.  Besides 
this,  it  demands  that  the  school  shall  be  so  or- 
ganized as  to  furnish  ample  opportunities  for 
doing  things.  The  social  life  of  the  school,  its 
services,  worship,  its  order,  arrangement,  disci- 
plines— all  its  life  should  be  regarded  as  part  of 
its  educational  service,  as  giving  its  people  op- 
portunity to  live  out  that  which  they  learn.  Each 
teacher  must  be  ever  seeking  means  of  expression 
for  his  students.  The  lesson  that  prompts  to 
helping  our  fellow-men  must  lead  into  some  help- 
ful act  for  another.  This  will  involve  the  ex- 
tension of  the  lesson  into  the  life  of  the  weak; 
it  will  mean  that  the  teacher  is  not  satisfied  when 
you  can  repeat  the  golden  text,  but  will  seek  the 
answer,  the  activities  of  the  whole  life  manifest 
in  doing  the  things  studied. 

The  religious  purpose  of  the  school  will  be 
100 


ACHIEVING  THE  RELIGIOUS  PURPOSE 

achieved  in  the  measure  that  it  sees  its  purpose 
as  the  development  of  a  life,  under  the  laws  that 
uniformly  prevail  in  all  life  processes,  into  the 
fullness  and  beauty  of  the  Christ  ideal,  into  Chris- 
tian character,  and  into  efficiency  in  Christian 
service. 


101 


CHAPTEE  Xn 

ORDER   AND   DISCIPLINE 

A  SOMEWHAT  extended  observation  leads  me  to  be- 
lieve that  the  following  general  statement  is  fairly 
accurate :  The  larger  the  school,  the  less  the  prob- 
lem of  discipline.  Of  course  there  are  notable 
and  regrettable  exceptions  to  this,  particularly 
where  the  enthusiasm  of  organizers  for  great  num- 
bers has  carried  them  far  beyond  the  considera- 
tion of  the  real  purpose  of  the  school.  But  in 
such  instances,  where  the  Sunday  school  is  simply 
a  great  aggregation  of  boys  and  girls,  where  its 
ideal  is  expressed  solely  in  numbers,  one  might 
properly  question  whether  it  is  a  school  in  any 
true  sense  at  all. 

There  is  another  rather  striking  consideration 
as  to  order  and  discipline,  and  that  is  that  in 
this  age,  when  none  would  claim  that  children  are 
becoming  more  reverent,  we  nevertheless  hear 
much  less  of  the  problem  of  Sunday  school  dis- 
cipline. All  those  who  have  been  in  Sunday  school 
work  at  any  time  will  remember  that  at  institutes 
and  conferences  this  used  to  be  the  most  inter- 
esting question  offered  for  discussion.  But  we 
remember  also  that  the  discussion  seemed  to  re- 
volve around  methods  of  dealing  with  disorderly 

102 


OEDER  AND  DISCIPLINE 

characters,  such  as  how  best  to  carry  out  a  kick- 
ing boy  with  one  hand  and  maintain  your  dignity 
with  the  other,  or  whether  chronic  disturbers  of 
Sunday  school  peace  should  be  thrown  out  of  the 
window,  politely  persuaded  to  leave  by  the  door, 
or  made  the  subject  of  prayer  on  the  part  of  the 
teacher. 

This  change  has  come  about  because  we  have 
passed  from  the  study  of  the  symptoms  to  the 
disease,  and  from  dealing  with  individual  out- 
breaks to  the  improvement  of  the  conditions 
which  gave  rise  to  them.  Once  we  thought  it 
was  the  bad  boy  who  made  the  disorderly  school ; 
now  we  are  coming  to  understand  that  it  is  the 
disorderly  school  that  makes  the  bad  boy.  We  are 
learning  that  this  is  not  a  matter  of  rods  or  rules 
and  regulations ;  it  is  not  a  matter  of  persuading 
so  many  little  sufferers  to  sit  in  silence  in  the 
Sunday  school,  and  least  of  all  is  it  a  matter  of 
expertly  handling  obstreperous  individuals  by 
physical  exertion.  Indeed,  discipline  and  order 
in  the  Sunday  school  is  not  so  much  a  matter  of 
individuals  as  a  problem  of  organization  and  of 
dealing  with  a  social  group.  Discipline  is  a  mat- 
ter of  discipl-ing. 

Discipline  means  the  harmonious  adjustment 
of  the  grades,  classes,  individuals,  and  officers  of 
the  Sunday  school  into  such  unity  and  common 
purpose  that  confusion  is  avoided,  noise  is  re- 
duced to  the  minimum,  and  all  the  factors  made 
to  perform  their  proper  functions,  thus  produc- 

103 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

ing  the  desired  result  in  tlie  school.  Discipline 
is  in  activity,  and  not  in  silence.  It  is  a  matter, 
not  of  repression,  but  of  guided  expression.  The 
discipline  of  the  graveyard  is  not  the  kind  desired 
in  the  Sunday  school.  Boys  and  girls  never  will 
learn  to  sit  as  still  as  dumb  stones;  and  those  to 
whom  such  a  condition  seems  to  be  normal  or 
desirable  need  the  attention  of  a  physician. 

Doubtless  you  all  have  heard  the  superintend- 
ent request  the  school  should  be  so  quiet  as  to 
hear  a  pin  drop.  This  is  the  orderliness  of  death. 
The  school  seeking  the  development  of  the  child's 
natural  life  and  moral  and  religious  character  will 
seek  the  harmony  of  vitality. 

WHY  DISCIPLINE 

Sunday  School  Discipline  Has  a  Directly  Edu- 
cational Purpose. — The  purpose  of  such  discipline 
is,  first,  the  training  a  body  of  pupils  to  meet, 
worship,  and  work  together  in  a  co-operative  way, 
and  to  acquire  habits  of  study ;  and,  second,  help- 
ing each  to  attain  to  such  a  point  of  reverence, 
orderliness,  gentleness,  and  general  good  be- 
haviour as  that  the  highest  and  best  interests  of 
all  are  subserved. 

Efficiency  is  impossible  under  conditions  of 
disorder.  These  are,  first,  physical:  bad  ventila- 
tion, poor  light,  insufficient  air,  ill-arranged  quar- 
ters, and  uncomfortable  furniture.  The  life  will 
make  no  harmonious  response  to  inharmonious 
environment.    "Whatever  disturbs  the  physical  life 

104 


ORDER  AND  DISCIPLINE 

will  act  as  a  disturbing  factor  on  the  life  of  the 
whole  school.  You  cannot  expect  that  children 
will  sit  still  or  will  work  into  the  life  and  activity 
of  the  school  when  compelled  to  remain  in  fetid, 
exhausted  atmosphere,  in  darkness  or  gloom,  or 
when  seated  on  benches  built  only  for  penitential 
purposes. 

Second,  conditions  of  disorder  are  in  the  man- 
agement of  the  school,  when  there  is  failure  to 
provide  for  and  adhere  to  a  definite  scheme,  pro- 
gramme, or  schedule  for  its  work,  and  where 
there  is  also  the  habit  of  tardiness  in  beginning 
and  consequent  breach  of  implied  contract  as  to 
the  time  of  closing.  Often  the  superintendent 
contributes  to  disorder  by  trying  to  make  his  bell 
compete  with  the  clamour  of  visiting  groups  of 
teachers  and  officers.  If  you  suddenly  admit  a 
flock  of  children  into  a  room  where  the  seats 
are  not  arranged,  officers  are  not  in  their  places, 
books  are  not  distributed,  it  will  take  a  good  deal 
more  than  an  hour  to  bring  cosmos  out  of  that 
chaos.  The  officer,  the  secretary  for  instance,  who 
causes  disturbing  noises,  who  rushes  about  the 
schoolroom,  or  in  and  out  of  the  class  rooms, 
should  be  either  disciplined  or  discharged. 

Third,  another  group  of  causes  of  disorder  are 
in  the  habits  of  the  pupils  and  teachers,  habits 
usually  which  are  simply  breaches  of  ordinary 
good  manners,  as  coming  late,  gossiping  in  the 
aisles,  whisperings  from  teacher  to  teacher — in  a 
word,  all  those  little  actions  in  which  the  indi- 

105 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

vidual  fails  to  fit  himself  into  the  working  of  a 
social  organism. 

RAISING   STANDARDS 

Conditions  of  Good  Order. — The  first  condi- 
tions of  good  order  are  in  the  realm  of  ideals. 
What  a  school  will  be  is  determined  by  what  its 
promoters  have  as  their  ideals.  The  need  of  any 
school  is  that  subtle  spirit,  that  esprit  de  corps, 
that  makes  a  hundred  or  more  one  body,  all  the 
members  of  which  work  in  harmony  one  with  an- 
other. But  that  spirit  comes  only  when  there 
are  at  least  a  small  number  of  men  and  women 
animated  by  some  lofty  vision,  some  noble  ideal 
of  the  purpose  of  the  school,  some  high  sense  of 
its  dignity,  its  worthiness  of  their  sacrifice  and 
service.  When  the  church  gets  to  thinking  of  this 
school  as  a  great  institution,  with  broad,  far- 
reaching  possibilities,  the  school  answers  to  that 
expectation.  People  are  as  we  expect  them  to  be. 
Talk  about  your  school.  Think  of  it  in  its  mag- 
nificent sweep  of  possibilities.  Don't  be  ashamed 
of  being  a  Sunday  school  man.  (We  may  find  a 
better  name  for  the  institution  some  day;  but 
the  name  is  of  no  importance  in  the  light  of  the 
possibilities  of  the  institution.)  Educate  your 
church  until  it  shall  accept  and  adhere  to  the 
educational  ideal  of  the  Sunday  school.  Then 
catch  the  ideal  of  the  educational  and  religious 
value  of  the  discipline  of  the  school.  Eemember 
that  the  school  that  permits  confusion  becomes 

106 


ORDER  AND  DISCIPLINE 

simply  a  mighty  agency  educating  its  people  to 
contempt  of  authority,  to  habits  of  irreverence, 
to  lawlessness.  It  is  a  great  thing  to  teach  a  boy 
the  order  of  the  books  of  the  Bible;  but  it  is  a 
greater  thing  by  far  to  teach  him  his  place  in 
society  and  to  train  him  to  right  habits  in  the 
art  of  living  with  other  people.  All  your  teach- 
ing of  the  facts  of  the  Bible  will  fall  on  abso- 
lutely barren  ground  under  conditions  of  irrev- 
erence and  confusion. 

The  second  condition  of  good  order  is  physical. 
If  your  school  meets  in  a  bam  or  basement,  boys 
will  behave  about  as  they  would  in  a  bam  or 
basement.  If  your  school  looks  like  an  old  junk 
shop,  and  you  come  to  it  feeling  as  though  yon 
belonged  to  a  scrap  heap,  the  chances  are  very 
great  that  the  net  results  of  all  its  endeavours 
will  be  a  waste  of  material.  There  is  something 
wrong  with  the  church  that  puts  ^ve  thousand 
dollars  a  year  into  its  choir  and  several  thousand 
into  renovating  its  cushions,  but  leaves  its  Sun- 
day school  in  the  cobwebby  basement,  companion 
to  the  heating  plant  at  one  end  and  cold  blasts 
at  the  other ;  with  ragged  hymn-books,  bare,  noise- 
inviting  floors,  hard  benches,  and  walls  adorned 
with  hideous  placards  rendering  sacred  words  in 
giddy  combinations  of  purple,  green,  and  orange. 
We  cannot  have  everywhere  special  Sunday 
school  rooms  immediately;  but  we  can  have  them 
ultimately,  for  we  will  keep  working  for  them; 
and  whatever  kind  of  rooms  we  may  have,  we 

107 


EFFICIENCY  EST  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

may  usually  secure  two  things  to  begin  with: 
pure  air  and  plenty  of  it,  and  good,  natural  light. 

No  one  ought  to  hope  for  an  orderly  school 
who  has  not  endeavoured  to  provide  that  which 
contributes  to  that  end.  No  amount  of  preaching 
about  order  or  of  praying  for  quiet  will  avail 
unless  the  arrangements  and  activities  of  the 
school  not  only  make  orderliness  and  harmony 
possible,  but  really  tacitly  insist  upon  these. 

When  all  the  exercises  move  with  definiteness, 
snap,  and  precision,  when  no  one  is  in  doubt  as 
to  what  is  to  be  done  and  who  is  to  do  it,  the 
student  finds  himself  in  an  environment  of  order 
and  discipline  to  which  he  must  adapt  himself. 
An  orderly  school  always  means  an  orderly 
scholar ;  and  the  orderly  school  is  not  an  accident ; 
it  is  the  result  of,  first,  clear  vision  as  to  what 
the  school  should  be  and  should  do;  and,  second, 
the  careful  outlining  and  adoption  of  those  meth- 
ods and  the  employment  of  those  instrumentalities 
and  persons  by  which  this  ideal  is  to  be  realized 
in  fact. 

ADAPTATION" 

How  often  it  happens  that  the  restlessness  of 
the  older  saints  in  the  Sunday  school  is  responsible 
for  the  restlessness  of  the  younger  ones!  To 
provide  against  the  restlessness  of  the  older  ones 
the  superintendent  selects  hymns  and  passages 
of  Scripture  suitable  for  ripe  experience,  and 
often  preaches  sermons  on  the  trials  and  tri- 
umphs of  which  the  young  lives  know  nothing. 

108 


ORDER  AND  DISCIPLINE 

But  while  the  dear  souls  in  the  Bible  class  comer 
are  singing  themselves  away  to  everlasting  bliss, 
it  is  not  strange  that  the  young  souls  all  through 
the  rest  of  the  school  are  taking  possession  of 
the  bliss  of  the  dramatic  and  imitative  activity 
which  pleases  them  just  then. 

The  secret  of  curing  restlessness  is  by  secur- 
ing the  co-operation  of  that  restless  energy  in 
your  purposes.  Do  not  expect  order  through  re- 
pression; it  can  come  only  through  directed  ex- 
pression. Order  is  simply  organized  activity. 
Too  many  officers  are  seeking  to  secure  uniform 
inactivity;  there  is  only  one  way  to  this:  chloro- 
form the  whole  school;  usually  persistent  efforts 
in  this  direction  have  the  effect  of  spiritual  anaes- 
thesia. The  simple  truth  is  that  you  can  secure 
the  order,  the  harmonious  working  together  of  all 
the  parts  of  this  composite  mass  called  a  school 
only  as  you  follow  the  laws  of  the  lives  of  the 
parts  of  this  whole.  You  are  dealing  with  active, 
restless,  energetic  material. 

Live  Material,— Your  business  is  the  training 
of  this  material  to  the  fullness  of  living.  You 
cannot  do  this  except  as  you  understand  the  nature 
and  habits  of  the  material.  You  need  to  study  the 
child  as  carefully  as  the  servant  of  a  great  busi- 
ness corporation,  for  instance,  would  study  the 
raw  material  which  must  be  handled  in  his  fac- 
tory. This  involves,  of  course,  thorough  acquaint- 
ance with  child  psychology.  But  it  involves  more. 
It  involves  knowing  the  boy  and  the  girl  at  first 

109 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

hand.  It  involves  such  a  thorough  knowledge  of 
their  temperamental  potentialities  as  will  enable 
you  to  direct  their  energies  and  organize  their 
very  restlessness  so  that  it  will  promote  the  dis- 
cipline of  the  whole  school. 

In  conclusion,  discipline  means  directed  activ- 
ity. Order  means  harmonious,  organized  energy. 
The  orderliness  of  the  school  or  class  as  a  whole 
is  one  of  its  most  potent  educational  forces.  This 
orderliness  depends  on  an  environment  physically 
orderly,  harmonious  ideals  wliich  permeate  the 
whole  school  mass,  habits  inculcated  through  or- 
derly exercises,  inspirations  of  examples  of  order 
on  the  part  of  officers  and  teachers,  and  the  direc- 
tion of  the  energy  of  all  into  common  purposes. 


110 


CHAPTEE  XIII 

MUSIC  AND  WORSHIP 

Education  may  be  defined  as  training  in  the  fine 
art  of  living  with  other  folks.  It  is  the  develop- 
ment of  the  life  for  social  living,  the  securing 
of  the  full  life  of  each  for  the  sake  of  the  full 
life  for  all.  One  test,  then,  of  the  eflSciency  of 
any  educational  institution  would  be  the  extent 
to  which  it  actually  leads  its  people  into  right 
social  relationships.  Any  true  school  will  have 
as  many  things  as  possible  which  its  people  do 
together;  it  will  train  in  social  living  by  con- 
certed social  action. 

There  is  one  thing  which  the  Sunday  school 
trains  its  people  to  do  together,  in  social  groups, 
which  has  an  importance,  religiously  and  socially, 
very  little  recognized.  When  the  superintendent 
or  the  principal  of  a  division  announces  a  hymn  he 
calls  all  the  members  of  that  division  to  do  one 
thing  together  and  to  do  it  under  conditions  which 
always  prevail  in  ideal  social  living;  that  is,  by 
mutual  sacrifice,  co-operation,  and  endeavour. 
Sunday  school  music  is  something  vastly  more 
important  than  a  matter  of  entertainment  or  of 
filling  up  chinks  in  a  programme. 

Ill 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

Singing,  especially  chorus  singing,  has  more 
to  do  with  making  character,  is  of  larger  educa- 
tional value  than  we  commonly  realize.  We  are 
likely  to  think  that  any  hymn  will  do,  that  any 
manner  of  singing  it  will  do  so  long  as  we  seem 
to  be  producing  a  noticeable  volume  of  sound. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  **  lifting  the  roof'^  may  be 
letting  down  any  religion,  dropping  it  out  of 
sight.  The  hymn  is  a  splendid  chance  for  the 
school  or  the  division  to  come  to  a  sense  of  its 
unity,  to  feel  that  all  these  many  are  one,  and  to 
then  and  thereby  learn  the  art  of  fitting  yourself 
as  one  into  such  a  social  unit.  Once  get  bodies 
of  people  singing  together  the  things  that  they 
really  feel  and  you  can  get  them  to  doing  those 
things.  The  ^'Battle  Hymn  of  the  Eepublic"  had 
a  place  as  important  as  the  bayonets  of  the  men 
who  sang  it. 

The  history  of  great  peoples  might  be  written 
around  their  songs.  What  kind  of  song  heritages 
are  we  giving  the  youth  through  the  Sunday 
school  1  Do  you  imagine  that  a  crowd  of  boys  are 
going  to  be  moulded  together  for  deeds  of  Chris- 
tian heroism  by  singing  in  tlie  school,  *^I  'm  a 
modest  pansy, "  or  by  the  vocal  tricks  involved  in 
singing  even  good,  stirring  sentiments  when  set 
to  a  tune  with  no  more  majesty  than  a  reel  or 
a  jig?  Wliat  becomes  of  the  idealization,  the 
heaven-soaring  aspirations  of  youth  when  together 
they  stand  and  are  led  in  singing  the  drivel  and 
inanity  of  the  average  Sunday  school  song-book? 

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MUSIC  AND  WORSHIP 

SONG  TREASURES 

The  question  of  Sunday  school  singing  is  not 
a  negligible  one.  Who  of  adult  years  cannot  re- 
member the  songs  of  youth,  who  does  not  find 
often  those  old  songs  coming  back  unbidden,  who 
lias  not  found  himself  repeating  some  of  their 
words  in  an  hour  of  trial  or  temptation?  The 
things  we  sing  together  become  part  of  our  very 
souls.  How  poor  is  he  who  comes  to  life's  days 
of  desert  and  loneliness  without  the  riches  of  re- 
ligious hymnody  in  his  heart,  who  has  stored  in 
memory  only  the  doggerels  and  cheap  imitations 
of  popular  theatrical  trash  which  many  a  modern 
hymn-book  affords.  Who  would  care  to  be  com- 
forted in  sorrow  or  sustained  in  declining  years 
with  the  moonshine  and  drivel  that  sells  at  thirty 
dollars  a  hundred,  and  makes  a  big  profit  at  that? 

We  are  in  these  evil  straits  because  we  have 
allowed  ourselves  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  ene- 
mies disguised  as  friends.  The  peripatetic  singer 
and  evangelist  leaves  behind  him  a  trail  of  song- 
books  often  so  baneful  as  evidently  to  belong  to 
the  order  of  the  trails  of  the  serpent.  The  songs 
in  the  books  are  mostly  the  professional  singer's, 
at  any  rate  the  royalties  are  always  his;  the  re- 
sults are  the  schooPs.  Why  should  the  Sunday 
schools  be  exploited  by  the  song-book  sharks  ?  The 
truth  is,  we  do  not  need  three  per  cent  of  the 
songs  that  are  written.  We  need,  not  more  songs, 
but  more  singing  of  the  good  ones.  Few  schools 
need  new  books ;  they  need  the  old  ones. 

113 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

No  congregation  habitually  sings  much  over 
fifty  hymns ;  no  Sunday  school  needs  a  book  con- 
taining more  than  one  hundred  songs  or  hymns. 
Practically  all  the  hymns  the  school  needs  are  in 
standard  books  already  existing. 

Some  people  tell  us  that  the  young  of  our  day 
will  not  sing  the  old  songs;  they  say  that  so- 
called  ** classic''  music  is  beyond  them.  These 
objectors  are  measuring  the  aptitudes  of  the  young 
by  their  own  abilities.  It  would  be  easy  to  men- 
tion many  schools  in  which  some  of  the  very  finest 
music  is  regularly  sung  and,  mind  you,  the  pupils 
like  it  and  insist  on  nothing  else.  Three  nights 
ago  the  writer  heard  forty  children  sing  Stainer  's 
* '  Crucifixion. ' ' 

Some  folks  think  that  to  be  classic  a  piece 
of  music  must  look  like  a  coal  yard  after  an  earth- 
quake or  an  explosion.  Dignified,  worthy  music, 
either  classic,  or  to  become  classic,  is  that  which 
harmoniously  moves  upon  our  feelings,  answers 
to  the  deeps  of  our  own  souls,  brings  all  its  parts 
and  its  participants  into  noble  unity  of  feeling 
and  action,  and  incarnates  itself  in  our  living- 
That  is  not  a  musician's  test;  it  is  a  test  of  music 
for  purposes  of  the  higher  life. 

EDUCATION    IN    WOKSHIP 

It  were  better  not  to  sing  at  all  than  to  sing 
as  they  do  in  some  schools.  It  were  best  to  give 
this  matter  of  the  training  of  character  through 
music,  and  especially  through  concerted  song,  the 

114 


MUSIC  AND  WORSHIP 

attention  it  deserves  and  to  put  the  mnsic  of  the 
school  into  the  Iiands  of  some  competent  and  sym- 
pathetic person. 

A  good  preacher  long  ago  emphatically  ob- 
jected to  the  phrase  ^^preliminary  exercises''  as 
applied  to  the  worship  before  the  sermon  in  the 
church.  Of  course  he  was  right;  it  is  all  wrong 
to  regard  singing  hymns,  reading  the  Word,  and 
uniting  in  prayer  as  merely  introductory  to  the 
all-imi3ortant  event  of  the  sermon.  But  if  there 
are  sinners  in  this  respect  in  the  church  services, 
how  much  more  common  and  perhaps  more  griev- 
ous in  our  offence  in  regard  to  worship  in  the 
Sunday  school !  We  call  the  worship  the  ' '  opening 
exercises,"  as  though  its  principal  purpose  was 
to  serve  as  a  preface  to  the  lesson  period.  We 
often  treat  these  exercises  as  though  they  were 
useful  only  as  a  cover  for  the  confusion  caused 
by  late-comers  or  to  give  teachers  and  pupils  a 
chance  to  complete  all  necessary  gossip  before 
settling  down  to  class  work. 

Now,  the  worship  in  the  school  must  be  neither 
an  incident  nor  an  accident.  It  is  not  an  incident, 
for  it  is  fully  as  important  as  anj^thing  else  we 
can  do.  The  act  of  singing  together  teaches  as 
much  and  as  effectively  as  all  the  class-work. 
Think  of  the  hymns!  There  are  some  we  will 
remember  as  long  as  we  live.  We  cannot  forget 
the  words  that  have  been  associated  with  captivat- 
ing tunes,  with  swinging  rhythm,  and  with  the  ex- 
hilaration of  a  social  exercise.    There  are  many 

115 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

who  have  long  ago  forgotten  any  phrase  uttered 
by  their  teachers,  and  many  who  have  forgotten 
almost  all  their  golden  texts,  but  for  whom  one 
strain  of  a  song  will  call  to  mind  in  a  moment  the 
crowded  school  room,  the  array  of  children's 
faces,  and  the  feeling  of  nplift  as  some  of  the 
fitting  hymns  of  childhood  were  sung.  Memory  is 
rich  with  precious  thoughts  fittingly  framed  in 
poetic  form  which,  would  have  been  forgotten  but 
for  the  aid  of  singing. 

Music  not  only  has  charms  to  soothe  the  savage 
breast;  it  has  a  strange  power  to  influence  the 
civilized  emotions.  The  words  of  hymns  become 
ours  through  the  power  of  music.  To  prove  this, 
try  singing  other  lines,  of  the  same  meter,  to  a 
familiar  hymn  and  soon  those  lines  will  sing  them- 
selves over  again  to  you.  The  great  pity  is  that 
so  many  driveling  strings  of  words  are  associated 
with  captivating  tunes.  Separate  some  of  the 
most  popular  of  the  revival  songs  now  in  vogue 
from  their  tunes  and  you  will  be  astounded,  if 
you  have  any  sense  of  literary  fitness  or  logical 
significance,  that  ever  you  were  beguiled  into  sing- 
ing such  meaningless  phrases.  Yet,  after  hearing 
those  songs  a  few  times  you  cannot  help  singing 
them  to  yourself,  or  you  find  yourself  humming 
or  whistling  them  over.  Would  it  not  be  worth 
while  for  the  director  of  the  exercises  in  the 
Sunday  school  to  see  that  the  child  and  youth  have 
some  thoughts,  some  worthy  sentiments,  and  some 
helpful,  clear  truths  to  sing  over  with  those  tunes  ? 

116 


MUSIC  AND  WORSHIP 

Is  it  not  a  wrong  to  any  child  to  bind  to  his 
memory  by  the  chains  of  song  either  foolish 
jingles  of  words  or  misleading  and  often  uneth- 
ical statements  of  religion? 

If  the  one  item  of  the  song  has  so  much  in- 
fluence, teaches  so  effectively,  it  is  evident  that 
we  dare  not  allow  these  exercises  to  be  an  acci- 
dent. Yet  is  not  that  precisely  what  many  a 
superintendent  is  permitting?  How  often  does 
he  know  what  hymn  will  be  sung  before  he  gets 
to  his  desk?  Does  he  not  frequently  let  the  leaves 
of  the  book  slip  through  his  fingers  until  he  hap- 
pens to  hit  on  one  that  strikes  him?  What  would 
happen  in  a  school  where  the  lesson,  often  a  less 
important  factor  so  far  as  teaching  value  is  con- 
cerned, was  left  to  the  chance  of  the  moment  with 
each  teacher?  Why  not  do  at  least  these  two 
things :  examine  carefully  the  hymns  you  choose 
beforehand,  and  allow  the  pupils  to  sing  no  senti- 
ment you  would  not  wish  them  to  remember  as 
long  as  they  live. 


117 


CHAPTER  XIV 

EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  CRITICAL  YEAES 

The  critical  period  of  life  constitutes  the  critical 
period  for  the  Sunday  school,  for  it  is  precisely 
that  period  in  which  the  school  is  most  likely  to 
lose  the  boy  and  the  girl,  the  period  from  thirteen 
to  eighteen  years  of  age. 

The  efficiency  of  the  school  for  its  purposes  of 
religious  education  will  be  tested  by  its  ability 
so  to  meet  the  needs  of  youth  during  these  years 
that  their  reUgious  development  is  steadily  car- 
ried forward. 

We  tend  to  blame  youth  for  its  fickleness, 
for  its  love  of  the  outside  of  the  school  rather 
than  the  inside.  Nothing  will  be  accomplished 
by  railing  at  these  boys  and  girls,  asserting  that 
they  ought  to  love  the  school,  that  they  ought  to 
enjoy  its  ministrations,  that  only  their  natural 
depravity  accounts  for  their  failure  to  appreciate 
the  *^ means  of  grace.''  Blaming  the  patient  will 
not  make  the  doctor  efficient.  The  school  must 
adapt  itself  to  the  child;  the  child  cannot  be 
changed  to  the  school,  for  the  aversion  of  youth 
to  the  organizations  of  his  earlier  experience  is 
a  fact  which  no  amount  of  scolding  can  in  any- 
wise affect. 

118 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  CRITICAL  YEAES 

The  question,  What  is  the  school  to  do  with  the 
boy?  is  really  more  important  than,  How  can  we 
get  the  boy  ?  If  you  have  the  right  answer  to  the 
first,  the  second  will  be  already  answered.  For 
many  decades  the  churches  seemed  to  be  spend- 
ing themselves  on  devices  for  catching  boys;  we 
thought  so  much  on  this  that  we  gave  no  atten- 
tion to  provision  for  the  boy  when  he  was  caught. 
Apparently  we  were  all  engrossed  in  devising 
baits,  traps,  allurements,  and  schemes  to  catch 
the  boy  and  count  him  with  us.  Sunday  school 
enrollment  and  later  church  membership  was  the 
goal,  and,  at  least  commonly,  that  meant  only 
ecclesiastical  enrollment.  We  were  more  anxious 
to  recruit  him  than  to  train,  discipline,  develop, 
and  use  him.  Our  devices  were  many  and  cun- 
ning; books  and  periodicals  were  filled  with  them. 
They  were  clever  but  not  sagacious,  for  they  were 
not  far-seeing.  They  saw  in  youth  only  something 
static,  often  only  statistical,  seldom  dynamic. 
They  regarded  him  as  passive,  seldom  as  poten- 
tial. He  was  a  ship  to  be  hauled  to  harbour,  a 
jewel  to  be  rescued  from  the  mire,  instead  of  a 
life  to  be  developed.  What  wonder,  despite  their 
smartness,  intricacy  and  abundance,  all  these 
plans  failed ;  they  stopped  at  getting  and  thought 
nothing  of  his  becoming! 

WHY   WE   LOSE   THE   BOYS 

The  schools  lose  youth  because  they  are  not 
for  youth ;  that  is  to  say,  the  school  which  the  boy 

119 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

or  girl  has  known  up  to  this  time  is  not  the  school 
which  he  should  know  from  this  on.  He  leaves 
the  school  because  he  is  leaving  all  old  things 
behind ;  he  is  entering  a  new  life  which  absolutely 
demands  that  all  things  shall  be  new,  a  life  which 
necessitates  new  organizations,  new  forms  of  ac- 
tivity, new  social  groupings,  new  interests  and 
foods.  The  boy  of  fourteen  is  sure  of  one  thing, 
that  he  is  no  longer  a  child,  and  he  insists  on 
leaving  all  childish  things  behind.  Often  the  at- 
tempt of  a  school  to  hold  a  boy  is  no  more  than 
an  attempt  to  keep  him  a  child. 

Our  failures  with  youth  are  due  to  our  ig- 
norance. We  are  more  anxious  to  describe  what 
they  ought  to  be  than  to  know  what  they  are. 
We  can  never  minister  to  material  which  we  do 
not  understand.  We  cannot  educate  unknown 
quantities.  The  school  must  know  this  youth, 
must  understand  and  appreciate  the  changes  tak- 
ing place  in  him.  The  study  of  adolescence  is 
not  a  fad  invented  by  a  few  people  in  order  to 
find  opportunity  for  exercising  themselves  on 
strange  terminology.  It  is  a  serious  attempt  to 
understand  the  nature  of  the  growing  youth,  the 
processes  taking  place  in  his  life,  to  know  the 
laws  of  that  life  and  to  work  out  plans  in  con- 
formity with  those  laws.  Our  efficiency  depends 
on  our  willingness  to  get  our  feet  on  the  facts 
before  we  attempt  to  go  forward.  What  do  we 
really  know  about  boys  and  girls?  How  the  un- 
known youth  must  scoff,  in  his  secret  self,  at  our 

120 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  CRITICAL  YEAES 

foolish  pride  of  familiarity  with  his  life!  How 
his  rudimentary  sense  of  humour  must  be  stimu- 
lated by  our  complacent  assumption  of  an  open 
door  into  his  life  because  we  can  glibly  repeat 
baseball  dialect  or  hail  him  as  one  of  the  * 'fel- 
lows ! ' '  Let  no  one  deceive  himself  into  thinking 
there  is  any  such  facile  entrance  into  this  strange 
life  of  youth.  Did  ever  man  find  his  way  into 
your  confidence  by  that  route  when  you  were  a 
lad?  An  understanding  of  the  life  of  youth  in 
this  critical  period  means  knowledge  based  on 
careful  study,  study  of  many  instances  which  have 
been  scientifically  collected,  instances  the  facts  of 
which  have  been  ordered  and  classified.  It  means 
study  over  a  wider  range  of  cases  than  can  pos- 
sibly come  under  personal  observation.  It  means 
the  same  sort  of  patient  investigation,  based  on 
the  seriousness  of  the  issues,  that  is  given  to  the 
study  of  diseases  and  physiological  phenomena. 
Of  course  it  must  all  be  made  alive  by  personal 
observation ;  there  must  be  the  knowledge  of  boys 
as  well  as  the  study  of  ''the  boy.''  Nothing  could 
be  more  sadly  impotent  than  an  attempt  to  lead 
the  life  of  youth  based  only  on  theoretical  in- 
vestigation and  laboratory  classification  of  data. 
Of  course  we  must  have  love,  for  we  deal  with 
lives ;  but  it  must  be  the  love  of  youth  that  is  deep 
enough,  lasting  enough,  strong  enough  to  pay  the 
price  of  patient  study  in  order  to  know  and  help 
them. 

There  cannot  be  in  the  school  a  great  many 
121 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

who  will  be  able  to  take  the  time  for  exhaustive 
study  of  the  facts  of  the  life  of  youth ;  there  ought 
not  to  be  in  the  school  any  without  time  and 
willingness  to  gain  enough  knowledge  for  a  sym- 
pathetic appreciation  of  the  vastness  of  the  prob- 
lem. Let  every  school,  by  means  of  the  books 
introductory  to  this  subject,  aid  all  its  workers 
thus  far.  But  only  a  few  can  be  specialists.  A 
few  must  have  every  possible  aid  and  encourage- 
ment to  continue  their  studies  and  to  become  the 
experts  of  the  school  in  the  needs  of  youth.  Every 
school  should  encourage  at  least  one  person  to 
a  careful,  painstaking  study  of  the  religious  char- 
acteristics of  adolescence.  As  we  have  suggested 
under  ^^ making  experts  at  Home,"  let  the  one  with 
an  interest  in  this  subject  be  aided  in  continuing 
his  studies  until  he  is  able  to  counsel  the  workers 
with  authority. 

THE   DEMANDS   OF   YOUTH 

The  school  that  seeks  to  minister  to  youth  will 
determine  its  ministry  by  the  needs  of  youth. 
What  are  those  needs  I 

First,  a  special  environment.  These  young 
people  need  their  own  social  environment.  They 
gravitate  together.  They  separate  themselves 
from  their  childhood  groups.  Perhaps  they  speak 
contemptuously  of  '  ^  the  kids ; ' '  they  will  get  over 
that,  if  you  can  lead  them  on  to  youth's  service  for 
others.  They  must,  in  the  school,  be  grouped  with 
their  own  kind.    The  youth  period  must  have  its 

122 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  CRITICAL  YEAES 

own  department  in  the  school.  Within  that  de- 
partment there  will  be  opportunity  for  the  natural 
working  out  of  the  social  grouping  and  activities 
of  the  grades  and  stages  of  this  period.  This 
department  will  have  teachers  who  specialize  in 
its  work  for  youth.  It  will  find  its  work  most 
effective  when  greater  emphasis  is  given  to  social 
groupings  than  even  to  logically  arranged  ma- 
terial of  instruction. 

Youth  must  have  its  appropriate  physical  en- 
vironment. The  separate  department  for  youth 
involves  separate  class  rooms  and  assembly  room. 
It  is  better  to  have  these  young  people  go  directly 
to  their  classes  and,  if  necessary,  miss  any  gen- 
eral assembly,  than  to  try  to  group  them  every 
Sunday  with  ^Hhe  little  ones.''  They  are  so 
keenly  conscious  that  they  are  not  little  ones  that 
you  cannot  group  the  two  great  divisions  together 
for  any  purposes.  The  separate  physical  provi- 
sion for  the  youth  period  gives  opportunity  for 
appropriate  furniture,  equipment,  and  ornaments, 
as  pictures,  trophies,  souvenirs,  diagrams,  maps. 
When  they  come  to  this  clubbing  age,  the  period 
of  gregariousness,  they  are  keenly  desirous  of 
opportunity  of  getting  together.  They  flock  to  a 
**  club-room, "  to  the  rendezvous  of  their  *^  so- 
ciety.'' Wliy  should  not  the  Sunday  school  class 
room,  belonging  to  them,  designed  for  them,  sacred 
to  their  group,  fill  this  need?  Make  your  rooms 
for  youth  the  social  centers  of  their  lives.  Let 
these  social  integrations  be  in  the  place  and  name 
of  religion.  123 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

YOUTH   DEPARTMENTS 

Second,  yonth  needs  special  instruction.  We 
recognize  this  in  the  graded  lessons.  Of  the  im- 
perative need  for  graded  instruction  we  are  to-day 
all  convinced.  Are  we  sufficiently  considering 
three  special  needs  under  this  graded  instruction : 
the  needs  for  this  instruction  as  directly  applied 
to  life,  i.  e.,  as  meeting  their  own  moral  and 
ethical  needs;  the  need  for  separate  instruction 
of  boys  and  girls;  and  the  need  for  freedom  in 
suggestion,  presentation,  and  discussion  of  imme- 
diate life  problems? 

Life  is  the  all-important,  big,  pressing  reality 
to  youth.  The  boy  has  just  found  out  that  he  is 
alive,  that  he  is  a  living  being;  he  is  just  awaken- 
ing to  the  fact  that  he  is  a  part  of  the  whole  of 
life.  For  him  everything  has  reality  as  it  can 
be  applied  to  living.  Do  we  test  out  teaching  in 
the  school  by  its  efficiency  in  meeting  his  needs  in 
the  business  of  living?  Do  we  appoint  teachers 
as  those  who  are  able  to  help  this  boy  to  live,  who 
can  really  make  practical  the  religious  material 
they  present?  Is  the  school  thinking  of  him  as 
meeting  every-day  temptations?  Does  it  plan  to 
help  him  live  the  every-day  religious  life? 

SEPARATING  BOYS  AND  GIRLS 

Boys  and  girls  need  separate  instruction. 
There  is,  during  these  early  years,  a  sense  of 
antipathy.    But  the  reason  for  separate  instruc- 

124 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  CRITICAL  YEAES 

tion  lies  much  deeper  than  that;  their  needs  are 
different.  The  boy  needs  most  of  all  a  strong 
man,  a  man  of  powers  of  leadership,  of  clean, 
impressive,  stimulating  masculine  personality. 
Equally  the  girl  needs  a  woman  who  will  be  the 
interpretation  of  and  inspiration  toward  the  ideal 
life  of  womanhood.  Both  boy  and  girl  need  their 
own  kind;  they  need  the  influence  and  stimulus 
of  these  simply  as  persons.  They  each  also  need 
the  friendship  of  one  of  their  own  sex ;  they  need 
one  to  whom  they  can  go  in  freedom,  candour 
and  confidence.  They  need  one  who  can  talk  with 
them  privately  and,  occasionally,  teach  them  ex- 
plicitly, and  without  other  than  wise  pedagogical 
reservations,  lead  them  to  know  and  revere  the 
laws  of  their  own  lives.  This  can  only  be  done 
with  a  man  for  the  boys  and  a  woman  for  the  girls. 

These  young  people  need  opportunity  to  freely 
express  their  practical  problems;  they  need  the 
chance  to  let  loose  some  of  the  surgings  within; 
they  need  a  chance  to  tell  a  leader  their  fears, 
difficulties,  and  needs.  Sunday  school  instruction 
for  them  must  always  be  permitted  the  freedom 
of  discussion,  the  opportunity  for  practical  deal- 
ing with  life  problems.  They  will  find  helpful  in 
the  direction  of  such  discussion  the  courses  on 
** Christian  Life  and  Conduct"  and  the  round- 
table  discussions  of  ''Life  Problems''  now  avail- 
able. 

Most  of  all,  youth  needs  the  opportunity  for 
directed,  purposeful  action.     It  is  the  period  of 

125 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

life-development  and  co-ordination  through  mus- 
cular activity.  The  school  that  teaches  the  youth 
as  a  passive  being  cannot  teach  him  at  all.  He 
cannot  be  simply  passive.  He  needs  a  physician 
if  passivity  contents  him.  If  he  lives  and  is  grow- 
ing as  he  should  now,  he  must  act.  The  big  prob- 
lem of  the  school  is  to  work  out  a  satisfactory 
graded  scheme  of  directed  activities  for  this  life. 
They  must  be  much  more  than  mere  simple  stunts 
to  keep  him  out  of  mischief ;  they  must  be  designed 
for  his  education.  Some  possibilities  in  this  direc- 
tion are  suggested  in  Chapter  XVII. 

The  church  must  discover  the  forms  of  activity, 
that  is  the  modes  of  life-expression  and  self-ex- 
pression, which  will  be  normal  for  youth  in  the 
church  and  for  the  development  of  his  life  as  a 
religious  person.  These  will  be  activities  for 
youth,  not  on  youth  nor  before  youth,  but  by  youth. 
Keeping  in  mind  the  axiom  that  the  character  of 
such  activities  will  depend  on  the  characteristics 
of  youth,  we  will  anticipate  in  him  and  provide 
opportunity  for  just  the  kind  of  acts  and  services 
in  the  name  and  spirit  of  religion  that  we  find 
to  be  common  to  the  youth  in  the  whole  of  his  life. 

YOUTH    CHARACTEKISTICS 

There  are  throe  outstanding  characteristics  of 
youth  during  this  period.  They  are  stated  with 
some  alliteration  that  may  help  to  ^  them  in 
our  minds.  He  is  Going  after  the  Good;  he  is 
Getting  into  Ms  Group;  he  is  Getting  into  the 

126 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  CRITICAL  YEARS 

Game.  In  other  words,  he  is  idealistic,  altruistic 
to  a  certain  degree,  and  is  becoming  creative.  He 
seeks  to  know  and  realize  the  best;  life  for  him 
means  sharing  life,  living  with  others,  and  he  longs 
to  set  his  hand  to  a  share  in  the  world's  work. 

Religious  education  deals  with  this  idealistic, 
altruistic,  creative  youth,  not  simply  as  one  who 
is  to  receive  a  correct  category  of  ideals,  crys- 
tallized into  verbal  forms,  nor  as  one  who  is  to 
memorize,  like  an  old-time  Chinese  student,  the 
rules  of  social  relations,  nor  as  one  who  is  set 
to  study  from  a  text-book  the  methods  of  life's 
work.  For  purposes  of  religious  education  he 
must  always  be  regarded  as  primarily  a  behaving 
person,  feeling,  discerning,  willing,  doing.  Wliat 
he  is  to  be  will  depend  on  what  he  is  led  to  do, 
what  he  does  with  the  whole  of  his  self,  emo- 
tionally, intelligently,  volitionally,  actively. 

This  boy  is  going  after  the  Good.  Plato's  dis- 
cussions he  does  not  know ;  probably  even  Ruskin 
would  bore  him.  He  seeks  the  good,  the  answer 
to  the  hope  and  longing  in  him,  with  his  muscles, 
Avith  feet  and  hands  and  eyes.  To  him  the  good 
is  realizable.    For  it  he  will  work  passionately. 

How  can  the  church  meet  this  need  in  the  boy 's 
nature?  It  must,  first  of  all,  show  him  the  good 
realized  in  men,  give  him  good  men  to  know,  men 
who  positively  impress  him  with  strength  and 
furnish  him  with  concrete  ideals.  Then  the  church 
must  direct  this  boy  to  serve  the  good.  Hold 
before  him  the  living,  actual  picture  of  ideal  phys- 

127 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

ical  equipment  and  conditions  for  the  cliurch. 
Show  him  how  to  help  realize  these  ideals.  Get 
boys  to  be  responsible  for  the  lawn,  the  street, 
for  parts  of  the  decorations  and  equipment.  ^Hien 
a  boy  puts  his  muscles  into  realizing  an  ideal, 
especially  one  connected  with  formal  religion,  he 
takes  a  step  toward  the  good  in  the  name  of 
religion.  Boys  have  done  good  service  on  church 
committees  on  Building  and  Grounds.  Boys  have 
made  excellent  gardeners  for  church  lawns.  They 
have  zealously  guarded  the  vicinity  from  stray 
papers. 

They  can  be  led  to  serve  the  good  in  the  wider 
community.  A  boy's  club  ought  to  be  something 
more  than  the  place  in  which  things  are  done  for 
boys;  it  should  be  the  mechanism  and  the  tools 
through  which  boys  do  things  for  themselves  and 
for  others. 

One  must  not  be  blindly  ^optimistic  about  self- 
government  for  boys;  it  has  too  many  serious 
drawbacks ;  but  a  boys'  club  building  for  which  the 
boys  have  no  responsibility  may  do  them  more 
harm  than  good.  The  most  untidy  room  in  a 
house  was  the  boys'  room  so  long  as  parents  and 
maids  laboured  to  keep  it  straight;  it  became  al- 
most a  model  after  the  sole  responsibility  for  it 
had  been  thrown  altogether  on  the  boys. 

MUSCLES  AND  MOEALS 

The  tattered  hymn-books  in  the  Sunday  school 
can  be  a  means  of  grace  to  the  boys  who  make 

128 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  CRITICAL  YEARS 

new  buildings  for  them.  Parenthetically,  most  of 
the  tattered  hymn-books,  because  their  contents 
are  so  ragged,  would  be  a  greater  means  of  grace 
in  the  furnace.  Under  the  right  leader,  boys  will 
gladly  do  almost  anything  in  the  way  of  real  work 
for  things  that  are  better.  They  find  it  fun  to  lay 
out  tennis  courts  and  ball-diamonds,  to  build 
swings  and  bars  for  the  church  playing  grounds 
and  athletic  field.  They  believe  in  the  good  of  the 
community.  They  will  serve  toward  a  better  vil- 
lage or  a  better  city.  They  will  help  in  the  cam- 
paign for  publicity  on  the  series  of  sermons  which 
the  pastor  is  about  to  preach  on  Civic  Betterment, 
provided  it  be  clear  to  them  that  in  so  doing  they 
are  not  peddling  bills  for  the  glory  either  of  the 
church  or  the  preacher,  but  that  they  are  making 
a  real  contribution  toward  civic  betterment. 

Many  of  our  plans  to  enlist  boys  fail  because 
we  try  to  get  them  to  work  for  the  church  in- 
stead of  leading  them  to  serve  their  ideals  tJirough 
work  for  the  church  or  for  the  community.  What- 
ever the  church  does,  as  a  realization  of  the  good, 
let  the  boy  have  a  part  in  it,  whether  it  be  in 
committees,  offices,  actual  labour,  and  service.  In 
some  things  let  the  boy  have  the  whole  responsi- 
bility, being  answerable  to  one  who  has  had  ex- 
perience in  that  which  the  boy  now  undertakes. 

In  the  Sunday  school  boys  make  excellent  li- 
brarians; they  are  capable  secretaries  and  treas- 
urers. Much  of  the  detail  labour  now  grudgingly 
monopolized  by  adults  could  be  shared  among  a 

9  129 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

larger  nnmber  of  yonng  people.  Appoint  new 
officers,  distributing  to  them  old  duties  in  smaller 
portions ;  let  a  boy  have  sole  charge  of  all  black- 
boards and  chalk  in  a  department ;  let  another  boy 
serve  as  librarian  of  a  department,  having  noth- 
ing to  do  with  the  general  library,  save  to  secure, 
distribute,  and  care  for  text-books  and  literary 
supplies  of  that  department.  A  boy  will  discharge 
well  and  faithfully  responsibility  for  the  seating 
arrangement  of  a  department.  Another  will 
guard  the  doors,  another  the  cloak  room.  In  a 
phrase,  *^Men,  sit  down  and  give  the  boys  a 
chance  to  become  men  by  serving  ideal  ends." 

The  important  thing  is  that  the  youth  shall  see 
that  the  opportunity  to  realize  the  good  is  just 
exactly  what  the  church  and  Sunday  school  mean 
to  him,  that  in  these  organizations  he  has  greater 
freedom  and  the  finest  chance  to  do  things  that 
are  worth  while,  to  bring  into  fact  and  being  the 
good  for  which  he  longs.  "When  a  boy,  then,  puts 
his  muscles  into  a  better  lawn  for  the  church 
he  is  putting  himself  into  the  realization  of  a  good, 
into  making  this  one  thing,  this  one  condition  the 
best  that  it  can  be.  That  work  becomes  worship, 
self-expression  toward  the  best,  the  ideal. 


But  to  him  more  important  than  the  realiza- 
tion of  some  ideal  in  things  and  conditions  is 
the  determination  of  the  ultimate  good  for  him- 
self and  his  life.    The  sifting  out  of  values,  that 

130 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  CRITICAL  YEARS 

determination  and  choice  of  the  greatest  good,  of 
the  things  and  ways  that  are  most  of  all  worth 
while  is  taking  place  in  this  boy  in  every  act  of 
service.  The  character  of  the  choice  is  determined 
by  the  character  and  aim  to  the  service.  To  ac- 
custom a  youth,  as  the  church  must,  to  give  his 
thought  and  energies  to  the  service  of  ideal  ends, 
in  work  that  brings  no  immediate,  concrete  profit, 
in  labour  that  cannot  be  measured  by  the  rule  of 
thumb,  is  to  give  him  the  best  of  all  lessons  and 
training  in  the  choice  of  eternal  values;  it  is  to 
make  the  final  good  for  him  the  life  of  love  and 
service  for  splendid  and  spiritual  ends.  If  the 
church  rightly  opens  to  him  her  many  doors  of 
work,  she  becomes  to  him  the  instrument  through 
which  the  good  is  found  and  served. 

PEACTICAL   PLANS 

Practically,  how  shall  the  Sunday  school  secure 
the  religious  education  of  youth  through  directed 
service  activities  ? 

In  the  smaller  schools  the  pastor  will  be  able 
to  plan  most  of  these  opportunities.  For  the  sake 
of  the  teachers  he  will  seek  their  co-operation. 
He  may  prepare  a  list  of  the  different  things  that 
boys  might  do;  he  may,  with  the  aid  of  others, 
prepare  a  like  list  for  girls'  activities.  Then  let 
him  call  the  teachers  and  officers  together,  submit 
the  lists  to  them,  and  work  out  a  plan  for  secur- 
ing the  working  co-operation  of  youth.  The  plan 
will  call  for  leaders,  adults  capable  of  training  and 

131 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

directing  youth  in  this  kind  of  service.  A  simple 
plan  for  a  small  church  would  be  to  provide  three 
pairs  of  leaders,  a  man  and  a  woman  in  each  of 
these  divisions:  (1)  "Work  in  the  Church;  (2) 
Work  in  the  Sunday  School;  (3)  Work  in  the 
Community. 

The  leaders  should  be  recognized  as  officers 
of  the  Sunday  school.  Their  plans  should  be  pre- 
pared and  carried  out  in  co-operation  with  any 
workers  in  the  Boys'  Scout  Brigade  and  similar 
organizations.  Any  planning  for  the  youth  in  the 
critical  period  ought  to  be  so  careful  and  compre- 
hensive as  to  embrace  all  the  opportunities  and 
organizations  in  the  school  and  the  church.  It 
ought  to  avoid  duplications  either  of  time  demands 
on  youth,  of  methods,  of  opportunities,  or  of  ma- 
terial of  study.  It  ought  to  provide  within  the 
life  of  the  church  for  all  his  interests.  It  ought 
to  afford  opportunity  for  all  who  will  lead  boys 
and  girls.^ 

Let  the  school  workers  and  pastors  get  to- 
gether and,  under  the  three  heads  of  work  sug- 
gested above,  make  out  a  schedule  showing  the 
present  opportunities  already  existing  for  activity. 
Such  a  schedule  should  be  cross-sectioned  accord- 
ing to  the  principal  needs  of  youth.  It  would 
often  result  in  a  form  something  like  this : 


For  lists  of  organizations  and  activities  see  the  author's  "Ei^ient  Layman* 


132 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  CEITICAL  YEARS 

TYPICAL    YOUTH 


ACTIVITIES 


Fields : 

Work  in 

Work  in 

Work  in 

the  Church 

Sun'y  School 

Com'ity 

Interests 

Church 

Services  (5) 

1.  Social 

Young  Peo- 

Classes 

(Usually 

Groupings 

ple's  Societies 

(6,  7,  8,  9, 

ample  but 

King's 

10,  11) 

unrelated 

Daughters 

to  Church 

Junior 

or  school.) 

Brother- 

hoods 

(30,  31) 

2.  Play  or 

(1,  2,  3,  4) 

Basket-ball 

(Unrelated 

Recreation 

Base-ball 
(12,13,14,15) 

to  Church). 

3.  Work  or 

Care  of 

Care  of  class 

Sick 

"Service" 

property 

rooms 

Needy 

(seldom  de- 

adornment 

families 

veloped) 

Library  work 

Hospitals 

Chorus  Choir 

Offices 

Settle- 

(5) 

Orchestra 

ments 

Ushers 

(25-30) 

"Messen- 

gers" 

(16-24) 

133 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

The  numerals  refer  to  possibilities  which  are 
seldom  developed.  The  list  of  suggestions  given 
below  includes  some  suitable  only  to  those  over 
sixteen  years  of  age,  but  for  purposes  of  a  sur- 
vey of  possibilities,  the  list  is  kept  complete.  It 
should  be  remembered  that  the  list  seeks  to  in- 
clude only  activities,  and  does  not  attempt  to  cover 
the  ground  of  studies. 

1.  The  church,  or  the  community  playground. 

2.  The  church,  or  the  community  athletic  field. 

3.  Calisthenics  and  gymnastic  dancing. 

4.  Dramatics. 

5.  Flowers  for  church  services. 

6,  7.  Clubs  for  social  purposes,  nearly  always  already 
organized  amongst  the  youth. 

7.  Debating  clubs. 

8.  Young  citizens  organizations  to  study  civics  and 

political  questions. 

9.  Clubs   about   such   special   interests   as   stamp- 
collecting,  coins,  cards. 

10.  Singing  club. 

11.  Saving  clubs. 

11.  Tennis. 

12.  Indoor-ball,  volley-ball. 

13.  Walking  clubs. 

14.  Excursions  under  direction  of  adult  leader. 

15.  Swimming  club. 

16.  Preparation    of    "manual    work"    material    for 

lower  grades. 

17.  Assisting  officers  in  clerical  work. 

18.  Care  of  blackboards,  exhibit,  and  museum  fur- 

niture. 

19.  Collecting  museum  material. 

134 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  CEITICAL  YEAES 

20.  Preparing  exhibits  of  the  school's  work. 

21.  Shop  work — mechanics,  photography,  printing, 

electricity. 

22.  Handling  biograph,  moving  pictures,  stereopti- 

con. 

23.  Dorcas  club. 

24.  Care  of  song  books,  repairing,  etc. 

25.  Gardens — flower  and  vegetable — on  vacant  lots. 

26.  Clean  city  service,  by  picking  up  stray  papers,  etc. 

27.  Co-operative    service    with    "Parent-Teachers" 

association  in  the  public  school. 

28.  Village  improvement  work. 

29.  Social  center  work. 

SO.  Evening  school  teaching  of  immigrant  children. 

32.  Evening  classes  for  employed  boys  and  girls. 

33.  Drinking  fountains  for  dogs  and  horses. 

34.  Ambulance  corps  (especially  in  mining  towns). 

The  School  and  Boy  Life 

One  of  the  principles  of  efficient  management 
is :  Determine  your  processes  by  (a)  the  material 
to  be  handled  and  (b)  the  purpose  to  be  achieved. 
A  mill  does  not  trim  steel  with  a  wood-planer 
simply  because  it  happens  to  have  such  a  machine 
already  installed;  to  attempt  to  do  so  ruins  the 
machine  in  addition  to  wasting  the  material.  The 
steel-working  room  is  separate  from  and  differ- 
ently equipped  from  the  wood-working  room. 

Does  anyone  object  to  this  parable  on  the 
ground  that  the  work  of  the  Sunday  school  is 
spiritual  and  not  subject  to  the  laws  of  material 
things?     Such  laws,  however,  are  in  this  case 

135 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

only  lifted  to  a  higher  plane;  the  law  does  not 
cease  to  apply;  it  demands  a  finer  application. 
If  we  cannot  afford  to  risk  metal  in  the  wrong 
machine,  can  we  afford  to  risk  the  lives  of  youth 
in  the  Sunday  school?  We  attempt  to  carry  on 
the  same  processes,  to  put  this  delicate  material 
of  life  through  the  same  organization  machine 
regaidless  of  any  changes  that  may  have  taken 
place  in  it.  We  expect  boys  and  girls  to  adapt 
themselves  to  our  organization  instead  of  seeking 
a  form  of  organization  determined  by  their  na- 
tures. 

The  school  must  recognize  that  since  a  boy— 
that  is  a  male  person  over  twelve— is  different  en- 
tirely from  a  child,  a  child's  institution  will  not 
even  hold  him,  still  less  mould  and  make  him.  The 
attempt  to  force  him  to  remain  in  an  institution 
for  children  will  do  one  of  three  things :  mar  him 
most  seriously,  drive  him  out  entirely,  or  smash 
the  machine.  That  is  precisely  the  situation  to- 
day, with  the  odds  on  driving  him  out. 

What,  then,  shall  we  do  for  the  boys  when 
they  get  to  be  boys,  when  they  come  into  their 
new  life  and  begin  to  be  entirely  other  creatures 
than  the  children? 

A  boys'  department. 

There  must  be  in  every  efficient  Sunday  school 
a  special  department,  separately  organized,  with 
methods  and  forms  of  organization  specially  suited 
to  boys  and  boy-life.    We  have  kindergartens  and 

136 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  CRITICAL  YEARS 

primary  departments  because  the  life  of  the  little 
child  demands  this  separate,  specialized  treatment. 
The  special  needs  of  boy-life  are  not  less  distinct 
than  those  of  early  childhood. 

The  school  needs  a  Boys'  Department  (a) 
because  the  hoy's  life  is  different.  It  is  different 
from  that  of  the  child.  He  is  keenly  conscious 
of  growing  up.  He  leaves  old  things  behind  and 
thinks  only  of  reaching  forth  to  the  man  things 
before.  He  often  rather  foolishly  seeks  to  antici- 
pate manhood's  experiences,  and  if  encouraged  to 
do  so  robs  them  of  their  bloom  and  himself  of 
their  later  full  appreciation.  But  no  power  on 
earth  can  make  him  cease  to  leave  the  things, 
the  ways  and  customs  and  associations,  of  child- 
hood. He  simply  will  not  associate  himself  with 
the  little  folks.  He  feels  foolish  if  he  sings  their 
songs,  joins  in  their  exercises,  or  is  grouped  with 
them. 

He  is  different  from  the  girl.  This  is  the 
special  reason  for  a  Boys'  Department  as  distinct 
from  the  Intermediate  Department,  in  which  boys 
and  girls  are  grouped  together.  At  twelve  he  is 
just  on  the  dawn  of  sex  life ;  its  consciousness  will 
come  before  very  long.  The  period  of  sex  aver- 
sion begins  now.  A  normal  boy  does  not,  at 
thirteen  to  sixteen,  care  for  the  society  of  girls; 
they  are  strangers,  mentally  foreign  creatures. 
Just  as  the  girl  thinks  boys  *'are  perfectly  hor- 
rid,'' so  the  boy  thinks  girls  are  creatures  to  be 
avoided.     The  sex  aversion  is  so  strong  as  to 

137 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

demand  not  only  separate  classes,  but  separate 
departments  under  distinct  direction.  Then,  too, 
the  sex  needs  are  different.  We  need  not  only 
separate  teachers,  but  separate  courses  for  at 
least  part  of  this  period  if  we  are  to  meet  the 
real  need  of  both  boys  and  girls.  The  difference 
is  so  great  that  boj^s  and  girls  must  go  in  sep- 
arate crowds  or  ' '  gangs. ' '  Happy  are  they  if  the 
school  furnishes  them  the  chance  to  have  their 
own  crowd-life  with  its  life  and  organization.  The 
boy 's  religion  is  different.  This  has  already  been 
suggested.  It  means  that  since  there  is  a  boy's 
religion  for  a  boy,  the  boy  must  have  a  chance  to 
express  his  religion  in  a  normal  way.  His  songs 
must  be  different.  His  prayers  will  be  for  the 
things  of  his  own  life  and  the  lives  of  his  fellows, 
for  his  boy  aspirations.  His  point  of  view  in  life 
\dll  be  his  own;  he  cannot  have  any  other,  and 
he  can  only  go  on  to  the  wider  viewpoint  through 
the  steps  of  his  own  mile  of  the  way. 

(b)  The  boy  needs  the  chance  to  organize  Ms 
group.  One  act  of  self-organization  has  value  such 
as  no  elaborate  imposed  plans  can  possibly  have. 
This  is  his  period  of  crowd  organization.  Think 
of  all  the  meaning  of  boys '  clubs  and  think  whether 
the  Boys'  Department  might  not  be  in  your  school 
the  club  for  all  your  boys.  Why  should  we  have 
a  multitude  of  boys'  clubs,  gymnasium  clubs,  and 
Junior  Brotherhoods  in  a  church  when  all  the  boys 
belong  to  the  school,  the  school  is  their  normal 
organization-relation    to    the    church    and    they 

138 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  CRITICAL  YEARS 

might  find  in  this  department  their  one  big  club? 
Within  this  department  the  boys  will  have  ample 
opportunity  to  work  out  their  organization  plans 
in  the  form  of  special  activities,  as  teams  for 
recreation,  gjmanasium,  sport,  hobbies,  and  social 
diversions.  But  make  this  department  the  means 
of  uniting  all  the  boys  and  co-ordinating  all  their 
activities. 

(c)  The  boy  must  express  his  religious  life 
in  his  own  way.  This  will  be  in  the  language  of 
his  kind,  in  the  environment  of  his  kind,  and  in 
the  activities  of  his  kind.  He  must  be  free  from 
the  restraint  of  those  who  do  not  understand  his 
ways.  He  is  a  bashful  creature;  this  is  the  most 
bashful  period  of  his  life.  It  is  not  a  shamefaced 
bashfulness,  but  it  is  the  strangeness  and  timidity 
of  a  newly  discovered  life.  To  let  his  faith  and 
hope  and  love  come  forth  and  find  itself,  there 
must  be  the  freedom  of  his  own  environment. 
A  Boys'  Department  will  allow  him  freedom  of 
expression  in  word  and  deed.  It  will  surround 
him  with  the  warmth  of  sjTupathy.  Moreover,  it 
will  permit  of  a  type  of  organization  and  of 
schedules  of  work  in  which,  unliampered  by  the 
restrictions  of  an  organization  designed  for 
others,  these  boys  may  be  able  freely,  under  wise 
direction,  to  do  those  things  which  contribute  most 
directly  to  their  religious  development.  In  a 
word,  it  means  the  determination  of  the  processes 
— that  is,  this  organization  and  its  works — by  the 
material  being  handled. 

139 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

The  special  activities  for  the  life  of  youth, 
suggested  elsewhere,  can  be  carried  out  in  this 
department.  It  can  be  adapted  to  make  them 
possible.  More,  a  special  department,  meeting 
separately,  permits  the  boys  to  talk  over  such 
activities,  to  discuss  them,  to  make  them  the  free 
voluntary  expressions  of  their  own  aspirations. 
This  is  the  important  thing:  that  such  activities 
shall  be  not  a  schedule  imposed  on  youth  by  wise 
adults,  but  a  plan  of  life  and  work  freely  adopted 
because  it  is  right  and  desirable,  beautiful,  good 
and  worthy,  in  their  own  eyes.  It  is  the  boys' 
choice  of  values. 

WHAT,  THEN,  IS  A  BOYS'  DEPAKTMEN'T? 

A  special  division  of  the  school,  separately 
organized,  just  as  the  primary  or  the  adult  de- 
partment is  or  ought  to  be.  It  will  be  under  the 
control  of  the  general  officers  of  the  school.  It 
will  have  its  own  principal,  director  or  superin- 
tendent, with  a  few  assistants,  who  really  know 
boys,  preferably  younger  men.  It  will  have  its 
corps  of  teachers.  It  will  have  its  special  cur- 
riculum, the  same  as  that  in  the  girls'  department, 
except  that  special  courses  will  be  given  on  sex 
subjects.  It  will  have  its  own  officers,  elected 
from  the  classes,  forming  a  cabinet  or  directing 
body  composed  of  boys.  It  will  have  the  direc- 
tion of  all  the  boy  life  and  activities  of  the  church. 
It  will  control  athletics  for  boys.  It  will  deter- 
mine the  social  life  and  its  regulations  so  far  as 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  CRITICAL  YEARS 

the  welfare  of  the  school  is  concerned.  It  will 
probably  have  meetings  at  stated  periods  in  ad- 
dition to  those  on  Sundays,  at  which  all  questions 
of  the  work  of  the  boys  will  be  discussed.  It  will 
have  its  own  opening  exercises,  and  will  either 
teach  until  time  to  adjourn  or  go  in  a  body  to 
the  closing  exercises  with  the  girls'  department. 
Wherever  possible  it  will  have,  of  course,  sep- 
arate rooms,  with  their  special  equipment. 

In  a  word,  the  boys'  department  means  the 
boys  organized  as  a  whole  and  as  boys  into  the 
life  of  the  church. 

THE  GIRLS 

Almost  every  word  that  has  been  said  for  a 
boys'  department  applies  with  equal  force  to  a 
girls'  department.  We  will  wake  up  before  long 
to  realize  how  we  have  been  neglecting  our  girls. 
They  belong  together;  they  need  their  own  re- 
ligious life;  they  need  the  special  direction  and 
care  of  those  who  will  study  their  needs  and  de- 
velop plans  suitable  to  them. 

As  a  working  expedient,  the  way  to  have  a 
girls'  department  is  to  organize  a  boys'  depart- 
ment and  then  give  the  girls  remaining  every  ad- 
vantage which  we  give  to  the  boys,  making  special 
provision  in  organization,  ofificers,  courses,  activi- 
ties and  equipment  for  them. 


141 


CHAPTER  XV 

CHUKCH   AND  SUNDAY   SCHOOL — ^A   GLANCE  INTO  THE 
FUTURE 

A  NEW  and  most  insistent  demand  is  being  voiced 
not  alone  by  Sunday  school  workers,  but  by  many 
others  who  realize  the  child  ^s  need  of  religious 
training.  It  is  truly  said  that  the  present  pro- 
vision of  time  in  the  Sunday  school  is  wholly  in- 
sufficient for  the  formal  religious  instruction  of 
the  young.  Some  suggest  that  while  the  child 
weekly  spends  twenty-eight  hours  in  the  public 
school,  eighty  hours  in  recreation  and  leisure,  he 
usually  has  only  forty  minutes  for  religious  in- 
struction. It  has  been  proposed  that  two  or  three 
hours  should  be  taken  from  the  public  school  and 
given  to  the  church  or  the  Sunday  school.  Many 
European  schools  close  at  noon  on  Wednesdays, 
and  some  churches  use  this  opportunity  for  formal 
religious  instruction.  This  proposal  has  been  se- 
riously considered,  and,  although  many  valid  ob- 
jections have  been  offered,  the  interest  it  awakens 
indicates  how  widespread  is  the  sense  of  this  need. 
Parallel  to  this  proposal  comes  the  recognition 
of  another  need;  that  since,  in  some  way  or  an- 

142 


CHURCH  AND  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

other,  it  lias  come  to  pass  that  our  children  and 
younger  young  people  fail  to  find  and  maintain 
vital,  normal,  continuous  connections  or  relations 
to  the  church,  we  must  endeavour  to  give  to 
every  child  a  perfectly  natural  sense  of  unity 
with  the  church.  Once  all  the  family  came  to- 
gether to  the  family  pew.  Now  the  family  pew 
and  the  family  worship  are  no  more.  Whatever 
our  theories  may  be,  we  face  the  fact  that  children 
do  not  go  to  church  except  under  compulsion. 

Some  pastors  say,  **  Compel  the  child  to  at- 
tend the  church  service  with  his  parents;  he  will 
thus  acquire  the  habit  of  church  attendance.'' 
But  did  ever  we  acquire  under  compulsion  a  habit 
of  doing  that  which  was  distasteful  and  seemed 
to  be  unnatural?  If  habit  is  the  organization  of 
experience,  the  experience  in  this  instance  would 
be  that  of  pain,  resulting  in  inhibition  through  in- 
creased determination  to  abstain  from  an  exer- 
cise which  is  tedious  and  largely  meaningless. 

It  sounds  harsh  to  call  a  church  service  *^  te- 
dious and  tasteless,''  but  the  fact  remains  that 
you  cannot  possibly  have  a  service  really  adapted 
to  the  life  needs  of  adults  and  to  those  of  chil- 
dren, too.  A  man  blinds  himself  to  every  principle 
of  pedagogy  who  insists  otherwise ;  he  is  perhaps 
deluded  by  the  hope  of  statistical  increment  to  his 
services.  Make  a  few  honest  inquiries  as  to  the 
reaction  of  the  boy  of  eleven  or  twelve  to  the 
sermon  in  the  church,  and  your  answer  may  not 
be  satisfactory;  but  it  ought  to  be  convincing. 

143 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

THE   CHILDEEN's   HOUB 

Certain  developments  whicli  have  fairly  forced 
themselves  on  the  Sunday  school  quite  recently 
indicate  a  possible  answer  to  the  questions  of 
method  involved  in  both  the  problems  just  men- 
tioned. 

Many  schools  have  for  years  maintained  Sun- 
day kindergartens,  conducted  through  both  the 
periods  of  the  Sunday  school  and  the  church.  At 
first  occasionally,  and  later  regularly,  older  sis- 
ters and  brothers  were  permitted  to  enter  the 
kindergarten  after  the  adjournment  of  the  regu- 
lar school  and  during  the  hour  of  church  service. 
Some  of  these  would  assist  in  the  work  of  the 
kindergarten,  but,  as  the  number  increased,  it 
would  be  necessary  to  group  these  older  ones  by 
themselves.  Classes  naturally  followed,  but  they 
often  would  be  unlike  the  classes  in  the  Sunday 
school ;  they  would  grow  out  of  the  practise  of  the 
kindergarten  just  as  the  child  had  grown  up  in 
its  life.  They  would  be  conversation  groups, 
work  and  play  (here  synonymous)  groups.  Now, 
as  older  ones  come  in,  and  the  younger  ones  grow 
up — to  eight  and  ten  and  over  twelve — they  are 
found  to  be  more  and  more  attached  to  this  ex- 
tension of  the  Sunday  school.  Groups  of  older 
pupils  voluntarily  gather  to  sing  their  favourite 
hymns,  join  in  well-chosen  prayers  and  readings, 
and  listen  to  very  brief  addresses,  often  illus- 
trated, on  the  kinds  of  things  that  children  are 
interested  in.    There  are  as  many  of  these  things 

144 


CHUECH  AND  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

in  the  religious  life  as  in  the  things  we  think  of 
as  outside ;  but  be  sure  to  keep  in  mind  the  differ- 
ence between  the  things  children  are  interested  in 
and  those  we  think  they  ought  to  be  interested  in. 
The  exercises  described  take  place  at  the  same 
time  as  the  church  service  for  adults.  They  are 
designed  for  children  just  as  the  church  service 
is  designed  for  adults. 


Now,  cannot  we  conceive  of  a  church  in  which — 
as  in  the  early  Christian  churches,  at  least — the 
children  are  ministered  to  by  means  especially 
suited  to  them  at  the  same  time  that  the  adults 
are  served  with  food  meet  for  them?  Would  it 
not  be  wiser  to  serv^e  the  real  needs  of  the  chil- 
dren than  to  attempt  to  make  them  serve  the 
needs  of  the  church?  If  we  accept  the  principle 
of  the  graded  school  and  the  graded  lesson 
(simply  the  adaptation  of  methods  and  materials 
to  the  normal  life  and  needs  of  the  child),  must 
we  not  also  apply  this  principle  to  all  that  the 
church  seeks  to  do  with  the  child! 

We  must  fairly  face  the  question,  in  this  mat- 
ter of  the  child  at  church  services.  Is  the  church 
for  the  child  or  the  child  for  the  church?  Are 
we  anxious  most  for  the  augmentation  of  a  con- 
gregation or  for  the  development  of  ideal  charac- 
ter in  the  young?  We  need  to  examine  the  really 
dynamic  motives  that  lead  us  to  urge  child  attend- 
ance at  church  service.  Cannot  we  agree  that 
^°  145 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

the  child  must  be  during  these  hours  of  oppor- 
tunity in  that  place  and  under  those  influences 
by  which  the  largest  lasting  good  may  become 
his  1  The  decisive  question  is,  Will  religious  char- 
acter in  the  young  be  most  efficiently  developed  in 
a  school  designed  for  him  or  in  a  service  planned 
to  please  adults? 

Imagine  an  arrangement  such  as  this :  Sunday 
school  opens  at,  say,  9.30  A.  M.  with  all  the  grades 
and  divisions  now  in  use.  The  classes  begin  class 
work  for  all  those  above  the  kindergarten  ages 
with  very  brief  opening  exercises.  These  exer- 
cises will  be  held  in  the  separate  classes  in  the 
upper  grades.  Class  work  continues  until  shortly 
before  the  hour  for  church — thus  affording 
usually  from  fifty  to  eighty  minutes  for  such 
work.  That  would  mean  the  possibility  of  each 
pupil  attending  two  classes,  taking  two  studies 
in  that  time.  Then  all  in  the  grades  over  four- 
teen or  fifteen  would  go  into  the  church  service, 
and  this  service  would  become  the  inspirational 
part  of  their  school,  taking  the  place  of  the  usual 
school  **  exercises. '^  Those  below  these  grades 
would  have  their  ** services, ' '  ^'exercises"  and 
class  work  appropriate  to  them  in  the  school,  in 
the  class  and  division  rooms,  remaining  there 
until  the  time  for  church  dismissal. 

It  might  be  found  helpful  to  bring  all,  from 
the  least  to  the  largest,  into  the  church  occasion- 
ally for  the  first  or  the  last  ten  minutes  of  the 
service,  there  to  sing  or  listen  to  the  pastor's 

146 


CHURCH  AND  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

brief  message,  and  so  receive  an  impression  of 
the  miity  of  the  church. 

UNITING  SCHOOL  AND  CHURCH 

It  would  also  be  helpful  if  appropriate  exer- 
cises were  designed  and  especial  emphasis  laid 
on  the  step  from  the  Sunday  school  to  the  church 
service  for  the  boy  and  girl  of  fourteen,  so  that 
they  would  look  forward  to  graduating  into  the 
higher  division  of  their  church  life  at  that  time. 
This  would  work  back  also  in  creating  the  sense 
of  really  belonging  to  the  church  while  in  the 
school,  of  being  members  of  the  school  depart- 
ment of  the  church.  It  might  also  be  made  to 
signify  that,  on  beginning  church  attendance,  one 
also  began  church  service,  taking  up  the  duties 
for  which  the  school  life  had  prepared  and  should 
prepare  still  further. 

Such  a  plan  of  work  would  be  no  more  than 
a  definite  step  toward  the  acceptance  of  the  edu- 
cational function  of  the  Christian  ministry.  The 
pastor  of  the  church  would  become  the  chief  or 
head  of  a  staif  of  educators.  He  would  be  not 
an  entertainer,  from  whom  an  audience  would  ex- 
pect an  hour  of  pleasure  twice  on  every  Sunday, 
nor  any  longer  merely  a  financial  agent  to  a  re- 
ligious organization ;  he  would  be  the  chief  teacher 
in  a  large  corps  of  teachers.  While  the  larger 
body  of  teachers  are  working  with  the  groups 
of  younger  people,  he  would  be  teaching  the  larger 
group  of  those  who  are  older.    It  is  conceivable 

147 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

that  one  person  should  teach,  definitely,  with  a 
large  measure  of  adaptation  to  the  needs  of  pu- 
pils, a  class  composed  of  many  persons  whose 
ages  lie  all  the  way  above  sixteen  or  eighteen. 
But  such  teaching  or  any  kind  of  teaching  is  quite 
inconceivable  if  to  such  a  group  you  add  twenty- 
five  to  thirty  per  cent  of  pupils  who  are,  say, 
eight  or  ten  or  twelve  years  of  age. 

We  simply  must  adjust  our  methods  in  teach- 
ing to  those  who  are  to  be  taught.  As  soon  as 
any  church  accepts  an  educational  function  it 
must  follow  this  definite  educational  principle, 
not  only  in  the  Sunday  school,  but  also  in  every 
department  of  church  activity.  We  have  no  right 
to  go  on  attempting  to  force  children  into  a  serv- 
ice not  at  all  adapted  to  them  and  deny  them  that 
which  they  crave. 

We  must  not  allow  ourselves  to  think  that 
there  is  anything  peculiarly  sacred  about  the 
church  service  as  it  has  been  conducted  in  our 
youth.  The  only  thing  that  is  sacred  is  the  child 
and  the  purpose  of  developing  the  Christ  char- 
acter in  that  child,  and  therefore  we  must  attempt 
obedience  to  the  laws  of  the  life  of  the  child,  and 
not  deal  with  him  according  to  the  likings  of 
adults. 


148 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE   EXTENSION    WOKK    OP    THE    SUNDAY   SCHOOL 

We  have  been  urging  that  the  Sunday  school  is 
the  specific  agency  of  the  church  for  religious 
education.  With  the  missionary  obligation  of  the 
church  in  mind,  we  cannot  think  of  that  school 
as  being  satisfied  with  its  service  until  it  is  reach- 
ing every  person  in  its  field.  At  present  the 
school  is  serving  only  a  fraction  of  those  whom 
the  church  ought  to  reach.  Perhaps  a  much  more 
serious  consideration  than  this,  however,  is  the 
fact  that,  too  often,  the  school  affects  only  a  very 
small  fraction  of  the  time  and  the  life-interests 
of  those  whom  it  does  reach.  There  are  two  aims 
worth  adopting  by  every  school:  to  extend  its 
life  to  all  and  to  make  itself  felt  through  all  the 
life  of  each  one.  We  turn  to  the  first  considera- 
tion. How  can  the  Sunday  school  extend  itself  to 
all  its  people? 

This  is  not  a  prescription  for  getting  a  big 
school  by  sweeping  all  the  community  into  it. 
Commonly  we  give  altogether  too  much  attention 
to  this  end,  the  wrong  end,  of  our  problem.  You 
will  get  all  the  people  in  your  school  that  your 
school  is  entitled  to ;  all  that  it  is  worthy  of  train- 
ing.    The  great  thing  is  not  so  much  to  compel 

149 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

people  to  come  in  by  tricks  in  advertising  and  by 
attractive  stunts  in  special  programs;  the  great 
thing  is  first  to  set  your  table,  prepare  your  ban- 
quet, and  then  you  can  go  out  and  invite  them  in. 
A  great  many  schools  are  using  up  a  lot  of  energy 
urging  every  one  to  come  to  nothing.  But  the 
point  just  here  has  to  do  with  the  outreach  of 
the  school  rather  than  with  its  intake.  How  can 
the  school  mean  more  to  all? 

SERVING  ALL  YOUR  PEOPLE 

The  extension  department  or  work  of  the 
Sunday  school  is  concerned  with  two  matters: 
(1)  reaching  those  who  cannot  get  to  its  regular 
gatherings,  and  (2)  ministering  to  that  part  of 
the  lives  of  all  neglected  by  its  regular  sessions. 

I.    Beaching  More  People. 

There  are  persons,  as  mothers  and  servants, 
kept  at  home  by  necessary  duties ;  employees  who 
must  labour  on  Sundays,  as  street-car  men,  rail- 
road men,  and  many  others;  travellers,  church 
members  away  from  home,  sodiers  and  sailors, 
the  sick,  the  shut-ins,  and  all  those  whom  irreme- 
diable circumstances  shut  out  of  the  school.  In 
order  to  embrace  them  all  we  need  to  give  this 
work  a  broader  name  than  that  of  * '  Home  Depart- 
ment" or,  at  any  rate,  to  be  sure  that  it  has  a 
broader  significance.  Surely  we  do  not  need  to 
urge  that  this  is  no  fad,  that  the  school  has  a  real 
and  deep  responsibility  for  those  who  cannot 
come  to  its  sessions. 

150 


THE  EXTENSION  WORK 

The  school  should  extend  itself  through  its 
organization.  First,  it  should  set  up  similar  or- 
ganizations in  fields  or  communities  wherever 
there  are  sufficiently  large  numbers  of  persons  not 
now  attending  school.  Nothing  helps  a  school 
and  its  workers  more  than  active  missionary 
service  of  this  kind,  searching  out  destitute  fields, 
and  there  setting  up  other  schools.  If  these  new 
schools  meet  at  another  hour  than  that  for  the 
parent  school,  you  have  in  them  splendid  training 
opportunities  for  older  pupils  and  younger  teach- 
ers. You  will  find  that  such  branch  schools  will 
take  care  of  many  who  by  distance  were  kept 
from  your  own  school.  You  will  find,  too,  that 
such  schools,  so  far  from  detracting  from  your 
own,  will  augment  its  strength. 

Then  the  school  may  reach  smaller  groups,  as 
in  remote  settlements  where  only  a  single  class 
may  meet  in  some  home.  Other  groups  will  be 
found  in  institutions,  *' Homes,"  prisons,  hospi- 
tals. It  is  possible  to  have  rather  informal  classes 
in  factories,  where  groups  of  men  compelled  to 
work  on  Sunday  welcome  the  opportunity  for  the 
noon-hour  class.  Then  there  are  the  ''dining- 
hall"  classes,  for  boarding  houses.  We  sadly 
need  group-agencies  of  our  home  schools  at  the 
summer  resorts  and  at  camps.  What  a  fine  thing 
it  would  be  to  know  that  you  had  a  branch  of 
your  school  up  in  some  mountain  mining  camp  or 
in  some  logging  camp.  It  could  be  arranged 
without  difficulty  if  you  know  any  person  in  such 
place.  151 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

Then  your  summer  resort  I  Do  you  work  for 
a  school  there  for  your  children  and  the  perma- 
nent residents  in  the  summer?  Why  not  do  this 
and  more;  why  not  make  the  school  permanent 
all  the  year  round,  sending  them  supplies  while 
you  are  absent?  A  live  school,  seeking  to  do 
such  things,  to  have  nerve  centers  wherever  rei- 
ligious  education  is  needed,  will  set  up  a  depart- 
ment in  the  school  to  which  will  be  assigned  the 
special  duty  of  conducting  this  work.  This  de- 
partment will  be  called  **The  Missionary  Depart- 
ment'' and  will  enroll  as  workers  persons  capable 
of  studying  conditions,  selecting  the  right  places 
for  branches  or  ** group  classes"  and  keeping 
these  in  vital  touch  with  the  school.  Few  things 
will  educate  children  in  the  spirit  of  the  Kingdom 
better  than  the  constant  conception  of  their  school 
as  a  centre  from  which  light  and  life  radiate  in 
every  direction. 

CORRESPONDENCE  STUDY 

So  much  has  been  written  on  the  Home  Depart- 
ment and  its  methods  that  we  need  consider  only 
some  special  phases  of  the  school's  duty  of  reach- 
ing and  helping  individuals  shut  out  from  its 
sessions.  Organize  the  study  work  with  such  in- 
dividuals on  the  plan  of  a  correspondence  study 
department ;  encourage  students  to  enroll  in  the 
extension  work  of  the  school,  as  correspondence 
students.  Set  up  courses  of  correspondence 
study,  simple  and  within  the  reach  of  all,  in  broad 

152 


THE  EXTENSION  WOEK 

grade  divisions.  It  would  be  a  splendid  thing  if 
such  courses  could  be  thoroughly  unified  with  the 
courses  usually  outlined  for  the  Young  People  ^s 
societies  by  the  denomination.  The  advance 
courses  might  well  be  in  recognized  text-books 
on  great  religious  subjects  or  could  be,  in  many 
instances,  the  courses  offered  by  recognized  cor- 
respondence schools  connected  with  the  denomi- 
nation's colleges  and  universities. 

Besides  the  study  activities  we  ought  to  plan 
to  extend  the  social  life  of  the  school  to  those 
who  are  shut  out,  by  remembering  the  sick  with 
flowers,  by  frequent  calling  on  individuals,  by  oc- 
casional home  social  gatherings  and  by  seeing 
that  all  these  correspondence  members  are  kept 
fully  informed,  through  the  mails  or  otherwise, 
of  just  what  the  school  is  doing,  of  all  its  gather- 
ings and  accomplishments. 

II.     Reaching  More  of  Each  Person. 

There  are  certain  phases  of  the  extension  work 
of  the  school  which  apply  not  only  to  the  shut- 
outs and  the  shut-ins,  but  also  to  every  one  in 
the  school,  seeking  to  extend  the  school  into  the 
life  of  the  pupils.  We  need  to  extend  the  school 
over  a  greater  portion  of  the  pupil's  time.  We 
all  recognize  how  insufficient,  even  for  the  purpose 
of  gaining  a  fair  knowledge  of  the  Bible  and  of 
religious  truth,  is  the  one  hour  per  week  at  pres- 
ent provided;  still  more,  how  insufficient  is  this 
little  time  for  the  whole  purpose  of  the  school, 
the  training  of  a  life  to  its  spiritual  fulness. 

153 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

WEEK-DAY   INSTRUCTION 

Many  experiments  have  been  tried  in  recent 
years,  and  some  of  them  offer  valuable  sugges- 
tions. One  pastor  tried  the  plan  of  inviting  his 
pupils  to  the  church  for  class-work  and  exercises 
at  3  o  'clock  on  Friday.  The  church  was  near  the 
public  school  buildings,  and  this  plan  caught  many 
scholars  after  the  early  week-end  dismissal;  it 
gave  an  extra  hour,  doubling  the  time  for  specific 
religious  instruction  for  nearly  half  this  school. 
The  plan  of  the  afternoon  school  for  religious  in- 
struction accompanied  by  the  dismissal  of  the 
public  school  for  that  afternoon,  has  been  advo- 
cated.^ The  whole  question  of  week-day  religious 
instruction  has  been  discussed  in  the  publica- 
tions of  The  Eeligious  Education  Association.  A 
practical  experiment  has  been  conducted  in  sev- 
eral schools  meeting  daily  for  religious  education, 
by  Eev.  H.  R.  Vaughn,  Madison,  Wisconsin.^  If 
we  make  up  our  minds  that  something  must  be 
done,  we  can  find  a  way  to  do  something.  What- 
ever we  do  ought  to  be  done  by  the  Sunday  school ; 
it  would  have  the  efPect  both  of  strengthening 
that  school  and  of  making  it  more  fully  the  spe- 
cific agency  of  the  church  for  the  religious  educa- 
tion of  the  people.  Try  the  plan  of  evening 
schools  in  the  Bible,  with  classes  in  the  great 


*"  Religious  Education  and  Public  Schools,"  George  U.  Wenner 
(Bonnell,  Silver  &  Co.). 

2 See  also  "Week  Day  Religious  Instruction,"  a  pamphlet  by 
Eufus  W.  Miller,  Philadelphia. 

154 


THE  EXTENSION  WOEK 

problems  of  religion  and  ethics.  Do  not  be  dis- 
couraged if  you  get  only  a  few.  We  might,  in 
many  places,  do  much  more  if  we  had  two  schools 
on  Sunday,  one  in  the  afternoon  and  the  other 
in  the  morning,  after  the  English  plan,  but  not 
expecting  always  all  the  same  pupils  at  both. 

THE    PRINTED    MESSENGER 

For  the  extension  of  its  influence  the  Sunday 
school  should  use  the  great  vehicle  of  literature. 
Every  Sunday  school  paper  that  is  carried  to  the 
home  is  the  influence  of  the  school  going  into  that 
home.  Notice  how  those  papers  are  read,  and 
then  ask,  Might  not  much  more  good  be  done  if 
the  papers  were  better  and  if  we  used  more  care 
in  their  selection  and  distribution?  The  library 
ought  to  be  regarded  not  as  the  means  of  amusing 
a  few  book-loving  boys  and  girls — from  that  point 
of  view  most  of  the  Sunday  school  libraries  are 
not  colossal  successes — but  from  that  of  using 
good,  invigorating  books  as  means  of  carr^dng 
the  life  of  the  school  into  the  home  and  through 
the  week.  Keep  the  Sunday  school  close  to  the 
literary  life  of  your  people.  If  you  have  given 
up  your  school  library  so  that  all  might  use  the 
public  lihYRTj,  be  sure  that  that  public  library 
has  food  for  the  spiritual  life.  Many  schools  are 
now  setting  up  stations  of  the  public  library  at 
their  school  rooms  and  there  caring  for  the  read- 
ing of  their  pupils.  Looking  at  public  library 
shelves  and  following  up  the  books  selected,  I 

155 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

am  sure  we  have  to  do  one  of  two  things,  either 
set  up  again  the  Sunday  school  library,  with  good, 
clean,  bracing  books  of  high  literary  worth  and 
spiritual  dynamic,  or  compel  the  public  library 
to  provide  such  books ;  usually  this  latter  is  easier 
than  we  think  until  we  try  to  do  it.  In  any  case 
every  school  needs  a  workers'  library,  carefully 
chosen  books  to  aid  its  teachers  and  officers,  and 
so  to  extend  their  usefulness  and  increase  their 
efficiency. 

WIDENING  KESPONSIBILITY 

There  are  many  ways  in  which  the  school  may 
serve  the  life  of  youth.  A  keen  sense  of  personal 
responsibility  will  force  us  to  revise  that  state- 
ment and  to  say  the  school  must  serve  the  life  of 
youth.  We  cannot  allow  any  other  educational 
institution  to  surpass  the  Sunday  school  in  re- 
sponsiveness to  spiritual  and  moral  responsibili- 
ties. Yet  the  public  schools  are  setting  us  a  re- 
markable example  to-day;  they  now  hold  them- 
selves responsible  for  much  beyond  the  teaching 
of  lessons ;  they  care  for  the  physical  welfare,  by 
medical  inspections  and  by  actual  provision,  in 
many  instances,  of  the  food  for  hungry  pupils, 
not  to  mention  in  detail  all  the  care  for  physical 
provision  in  buildings  and  equipment ;  they  super- 
vise the  play-life  not  on  the  grounds  alone,  but 
in  parks  and  outside  playgrounds;  they  even  en- 
quire into  the  conditions  of  home  living;  they 
enquire  into  the  stores  around  the  school,  into 

156 


THE  EXTENSION  WOEK 

the  moving  picture  shows;  they  are  become  the 
moral  guardians  of  the  life  of  youth. 

The  least  any  Sunday  school  can  do  is  to  know 
what  the  public  schools  are  doing  and  where  work 
such  as  the  above  is  being  carried  on,  to  seek  to 
cooperate  with  them.  In  any  case  some  of  these 
things  lie  properly  within  the  work  of  the  Sunday 
school  and  cannot  be  neglected  if  the  school  would 
do  its  duty.  We  work  in  vain  to  guide  the  life 
of  youth  if  we,  with  all  emphasis  on  our  single 
contact  with  him  on  Sunday,  neglect  the  more  fre- 
quent, longer  and  more  vivid  contacts  of  daily 
life,  particularly  of  his  play  and  ideal  life,  of 
amusements  and  recreations. 

SOCIAL  HELPFULNESS 

These  things  many  schools  might  well  and 
readily  do:  Publish  a  Sunday  school  bulletin 
every  week,  for  every  scholar,  which  would  show 
not  only  the  services  and  social  life  of  the  church 
and  school,  but  also  all  the  opportunities  of  the 
neighbourhood  which  would  help  the  youth-life. 
This  should  include  not  only  those  forms  of  amuse- 
ment or  recreation  which  we  adults  would  enjoy, 
but  those  which  the  children  are  already  enjoy- 
ing, and  in  general  specifying  the  particular  ones 
we  can  endorse.  To  be  explicit,  such  a  bulletin 
might  well  list :  good,  natural  books  in  the  public 
library,  concerts,  entertainments,  exhibits  as  at 
art  galleries,  play  and  sport  occasions  of  a  healthy 
character,  moving  picture  shows  that  are  worth 

157 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

while.  The  last  illustrates  the  main  point.  The 
moving  picture  show  is  here;  practically  all  chil- 
dren at  some  time  attend  them.  Many  of  them 
are  well  conducted — save  usually  as  to  hygienic 
conditions — and  the  pictures  are  clean,  and  often 
somewhat  elevating.  Probably  they  are  more  val- 
uable to  the  average  city  child  than  we  are  able 
to  realize,  because  they  begin  with  his  point  of 
view ;  they  are  real,  meaningful  and  unconsciously 
pedagogical  in  their  method  with  him.  They 
naturally  are  much  more  potent  as  pictures  and 
as  pictures  of  action  than  any  mere  spoken  words 
could  possibly  be.  Now,  it  happens  at  times  that 
these  shows  include  pictures  and  narratives  really 
highly  beneficial.  Why  should  not  the  school  en- 
courage these  and  direct  the  pupils  to  them?  It 
is  simply  a  matter  of  our  helping  him  to  select 
the  best  or  leaving  him  to  drift,  it  may  be,  to 
the  worst.  At  any  rate  a  weekly  bulletin  of  op- 
portunities for  the  higher  life  of  youth,  for  help- 
ful play  and  recreation  and  instruction  would 
make  the  Sunday  school  reach  out  in  a  guiding 
capacity  through  all  the  days  between  Sundays. 
It  will  make  all  the  difference  to  our  schools 
whether  we  think  of  them  as  little  circles  to  be 
fed,  ministered  to,  polished  and  perfected  for 
their  own  sakes,  or  as  centres  from  which  life  and 
life-giving  power  must  radiate  into  all  lives  and 
into  all  places.  The  centrifugal  school  lives  more 
and  more,  the  centripetal  dies  daily. 


158 


CHAPTER  XVII 

NEGLECTED   ASPECTS   OF    MANUAL   WORK 

Manual  work  in  the  Sunday  school  easily  may 
degenerate  into  a  meaningless  fad.  The  teacher 
who  persistently  plods  along  in  the  old  ruts  is 
better  off  than  the  one  who  is  unceasingly  striking 
out  into  new  paths  but  never  knowing  why  these 
paths  are  taken  and  the  old  are  forsaken.  A 
while  ago  so  much  was  being  said  about  manual 
work  that  schools  everywhere  were  taking  it  up 
and  many  class  rooms  began  to  look  like  the  co- 
alescence of  a  brickyard  with  a  milliner's  shop; 
children  came  home  from  Sunday  school  with 
patches  of  clay  and  crepe  paper  sticking  to  them 
externally,  much  as  the  golden  texts  used  to  stick. 
Some  teachers  saw  a  great  advantage  in  this 
manual  activity ;  it  kept  the  little  hands  busy,  and 
so  beat  Satan  at  his  own  business.  If  you  could 
get  a  child  to  building  a  model  of  the  temple,  his 
mind  would  not  wander  off  to  baseball  or  to  the 
blue-bottle  buzzing  in  the  window  pane. 

Surely  somewhere  there  must  have  been  some 
little  heart-searching  as  to  the  real  religious  ends 
of  these  occupations ;  it  must  sometimes  have  oc- 
curred to  teachers  that  it  was  hard  to  trace  a 
spiritual    connection   between   plaster   casts    of 

159 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

Noah's  ark  and  the  growth  of  Christian  character 
in  the  child.  Such  a  shortsighted  acceptance  and 
application  of  manual  methods  was  due  to  an  old 
misconception  of  the  purpose  of  the  Sunday 
school;  the  method  was  measured  by  the  success 
which  followed  in  managing  children,  in  repress- 
ing or  engrossing  their  activities  and  so  securing 
the  ideal  school,  one  in  which  you  could  '^hear  a 
pin  drop."  Now,  you  cannot  measure  any  school 
by  whether  you  can  hear  things  dropping  there 
or  not;  you  can  measure  it  only  by  whether  life 
is  developing  there.  The  character  aim  in  reli- 
gious education  must  be  the  simple  and  final  test 
of  all  our  methods. 

CHARACTER    VALUES 

There  is  a  character  aim  in  manual  methods. 
Those  wise  pedagogical  leaders  who  have  been  in- 
sisting on  the  values  in  these  methods  have  had 
that  character  aim  in  mind;  the  teachers  without 
pedagogical  insight  have  missed  it.  The  aim  of 
the  Sunday  school  is  the  active,  efficient  Christian 
character,  the  whole  life  responding  fully  to  the 
religious  stimuli.  Manual  methods  are  concerned 
with,  and  valuable  to,  this  development  of  char- 
acter. Eight  here  is  the  simple  reason :  you  can- 
not secure  the  response  of  any  life  to  external 
stimuli  unless  you  secure  the  cooperation  of  its 
voluntary  activities.  Throwing  a  boy  through 
the  door  of  a  church  inwards  has  no  positive  ef- 
fect on  Ms  character  churchwards.    If  we  would 

160 


NEGLECTED  ASPECTS  OF  MANUAL  WORK 

lead  lives  Christward  we  must  secure  their  will- 
ing to  go  that  way  and  their  actual  walking  in 
that  way.  The  true  spirit  of  manual  methods  in 
the  Sunday  school  is  not  in  finding  something  to 
keep  busy  fingers  out  of  mischief,  but  in  afford- 
ing opportunities  for  lives  to  give  active,  natural 
expression  to  their  response  to  lessons  taught, 
impressions  made  and  inspiration  given,  to  react 
in  their  own  volitional  activities  to  the  stimuli  of 
the  school. 

Buying  a  pot  of  paste,  a  bundle  of  tissue  pa- 
per and  a  box  of  clay  or  wax,  will  not  set  up  effi- 
cient manual  methods.  Even  with  these  the  en- 
deavour should  be  to  see  that  whatever  a  child 
does  is  the  natural  expression,  the  working  out  of 
some  impression,  or,  on  the  other  hand,  the  learn- 
ing of  a  lesson  through  a  definite,  concrete  experi- 
ence. But  the  underlying  principle  of  manual 
methods,  the  learning  through  doing  and  the  do- 
ing because  tve  are  learning,  must  go  all  through 
the  school  nor  rest  in  the  primary  or  kindergarten 
alone.  Men  and  boys  need  these  expressional 
activities  almost  as  much  as  infants  and  chil- 
dren do. 

NOEMAL  EXPRESSIONAL  ACTIVITIES 

The  most  difficult  problem  before  the  Sunday 
school  to-day  lies  right  here;  how  can  we  find 
suitable,  expressional  things  for  our  people  to  do? 
In  fact  the  problem  goes  all  through  the  life  of 
the  church  and  the  whole  work  of  religious  edu- 

161 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

cation.  We  are  coming  into  a  fairly  clear  place 
as  to  the  lesson  material  for  religious  education; 
we  are  still  in  the  dark  as  to  what  is  really  of 
greater  importance,  the  opportunities  for  service, 
for  activities  which  are  the  means  by  which  we 
learn  and  through  which  we  express,  and  so  make 
permanent  that  which  is  learned. 

When  the  pastor  gets  the  boys  to  care  for  the 
church  lawn,  to  plant  flowers  or  shrubs  thereon; 
when  the  girls  are  enlisted  in  securing  flowers  for 
the  pulpit  or  in  taking  them  to  the  sick,  they  are 
being  led  into  manual  work  as  truly  as  though 
they  sat  down  in  classes  with  shears  and  paste. 
The  likelihood  is  that,  inasmuch  as  the  ways  first 
mentioned  are  more  natural  ways  of  carrying  out 
lessons  on  love,  kindness  and  service,  so  also  are 
they  more  pedagogically  correct  as  manual 
methods. 

Boys  and  girls,  men  and  women  are  fairly 
spoiling  in  the  churches  for  lack  of  something  to 
do.  I  know  some  pastor  will  say,  '*I  can't  find 
them. ' '  It  may  be  the  reason  is  you  haven 't  asked 
them  to  do  something;  you  have  only  asked 
them  to  say  something  or  to  give  something  or 
to  sit  on  something,  as  a  seat  or  a  committee. 
Try  finding  things  for  all  your  people  to  do ;  sick 
to  call  on,  poor  to  minister  to,  wrongs  to  be  ex- 
posed and  righted,  some  service  for  the  Kingdom 
that  will  permit  them  to  put  your  sermons  into 
practice  instead  of  suffering  spiritual  surfeit 
from  undigested  heavenly  securities. 

162 


NEGLECTED  ASPECTS  OF  MANUAL  WORK 

THE  SCHOOL  A  LABORATORY 

Most  of  all  ought  we  to  be  looking  for  things 
for  the  people  in  our  Sunday  schools  to  be  do- 
ing; the  school  must  become  a  laboratory;  virtues 
must  be  learned  through  their  practice.  We  do 
need  graded  lessons,  but,  verily,  we  need  still 
more  what  might  be  called  ''going''  lessons,  so 
practical  that  pupils  are  impelled  to  practice  them 
while  the  school  is  compelled  to  direct  the  practice 
and  open  up  the  opportunities  for  it.  True  re- 
ligious education  will  here  be  of  such  a  character 
that  he  who  reads  will  run  and,  running,  will  the 
better  read. 

It  is  worth  while  to  get  firmly  fixed  the  funda- 
mental law  which  accounts  for  all  our  manual 
methods  and  which  ought  to  compel  every  pastor 
and  worker  for  the  religious  life  of  both  youth 
and  mature  life  to  be  constantly  asking,  What  is 
there  for  these  people  to  do?  That  law  is  the 
simple  principle  that  there  is  no  education  with- 
out activity.  You  can  express  it  in  many  ways ; 
you  may  say.  There  is  no  learning  without  life; 
there  is  no  impression  without  expression;  there 
is  no  permanency  or  reality  in  a  religious  experi- 
ence that  does  not  produce  action,  some  effect  in 
the  life  of  the  one  experiencing  it.  Not  the  vir- 
tues you  admire,  but  those  for  which  you  per- 
spire, are  yours.  It  is  so  easy  to  delude  our- 
selves here  and  think  that  the  defining  of  a  duty 
is  the  doing  of  it,  that  learning  a  law  is  the  same 
thing  as  living  it.    This  principle  of  the  manual 

163 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

method  means  that  we  must  call  into  action  the 
will  and  the  muscles  to  weave  any  experience  into 
the  whole  of  our  lives. 

SPIEITUAL   SUFFOCATIOIT 

Just  as  we  must  know  that  many  saints  are 
suffering  from  undigested  sermons  because  they 
have  been  drinking  them  in  for  decades  and 
scarcely  spent  a  minute  doing  any  of  them,  so  we 
need  in  the  Sunday  school  especially  to  watch 
lest  the  spiritual  life  of  the  young  be  early  suffo- 
cated with  emotions  unexpressed  in  action,  feel- 
ings that  have  never  wrought  out  through  the 
muscles,  ideals  that  have  remained  unexpressed. 
If  you  keep  on  stimulating  the  emotions  without 
giving  them  a  chance  to  work  out  in  action,  they 
soon  become  hardened,  indifferent,  calloused. 
The  boy  who  is  lamentably  indifferent  to  reli- 
gious appeals  is  not  the  one  who  has  been  hard- 
ened by  sinful  contacts  so  often  as  the  one  who 
has  been  calloused  by  constant  repetitions  of  re- 
ligious emotions  for  which  no  nerve  and  voli- 
tional reaction  was  provided.  He  has  been  often 
*^ stirred  up,'*  and  then  allowed  to  settle  again, 
each  time  without  doing  anything  about  it  that 
made  the  stirring  up  experience  a  normal  part  of 
his  life. 

When  you  think  how  readily  children  convert 
eyery  kind  of  suggestion  into  action  in  every  other 
relation  of  life,  you  will  begin  to  see  how  abnormal 
the  religious  relations  must  seem  to  them.    Every- 

164 


NEGLECTED  ASPECTS  OF  MANUAL  WOEK 

where  else  they  do  what  they  are  told;  they  act 
out  their  duties  and  play  their  parts.  Here,  in 
the  institution  that  spells  religion  to  them,  they 
hear  without  doing;  they  are  even  made  to  feel 
like  doing,  but  no  chance  for  deeds  follows.  They 
learn  the  words,  **If  ye  knew  these  things,  happy 
are  ye  if  ye  do  them,''  and  **Not  every  one  that 
saith  unto  me,  Lord,  Lord,  but  he  that  doeth  the 
will" — but  they  have  become  so  habituated  to 
hearing  without  doing  that  these  things  have  no 
special  call  to  action  in  them.  The  result  is  that 
they  are  habituated  to  take  religion  in  terms  of 
hearing  without  doing,  just  what  it  means  to 
so  many  professors  of  piety,  mere  cumberers  of 
the  ground.  So  do  we  easily  train  youth  to 
courses  of  unconscious  hypocrisy  by  our  failure 
to  furnish  opportunities  and  direction  of  action 
following  religious  impression. 


165 


CHAPTER  XVin 

MAKING  THE  LESSON   REAL 

We  are  all  agreed  that  tlie  purpose  of  teaching 
is  to  train  the  life  rather  than  merely  to  store 
the  memory.  We  all  agree  that  the  end  sought 
is  ability  to  live  the  religious  life.  Every  teacher 
surely  sees  that  every  lesson  ought  to  have  a 
direct,  practical  meaning  to  every  life,  and  that 
no  lesson  can  be  said  to  be  taught  until  it  has 
been  translated  in  some  way  into  action.  But  the 
difficulty  comes  when  we  seek  ways  of  making 
every  lesson  directly  practicable  to  every  student. 
At  first  it  seems  an  easy  matter;  apparently 
all  you  have  to  do  is  to  say,  ^'Now,  this  means 
that  you  ought  always  to  tell  the  truth,"  or  **This 
means  that  you  ought  always  to  be  kind  to  one 
another."  But,  generally  speaking,  you  might 
just  about  as  well  say  those  words  backwards  as 
forwards  so  far  as  their  effect  is  concerned. 
Children  always  turn  deaf  ears  to  moralizing. 
The  reason  is  not  that  they  object  to  good  morals, 
but  that  to  them  such  phrases  are  only  empty 
forms  of  words ;  they  are  literary  symbols  which 
they  do  not  know  or  will  not  make  the  effort  to 
interpret.  Then,  is  the  right  way  to  make  the 
suggestion  more  direct?    Ought  we  to  say,  ^^This 

166 


MAKING  THE  LESSON  EEAL 

lesson  means  that  you,  "William  Blake,  ought  to 
be  kind  to  that  little  fellow  you  tried  to  push 
down  on  your  way  to  school,''  or,  again,  ^'You, 
Henry  Brown,  ought  to  tell  the  truth  about  the 
incident  you  just  now  gave  in  great  exaggera- 
tion?'' Well,  we  can  see  that  that  would  not 
work.  We  would  have  a  debate  on  hand  at  once. 
At  any  rate,  while  it  might  work  on  rare  occa- 
sions, it  is  a  method  to  be  applied  in  private, 
teacher  to  pupil  alone,  and  in  friendship.  In 
the  class  it  would  lead  to  crimination  and  re- 
crimination. 

If  we  would  make  the  practical,  life  signifi- 
cance of  a  lesson  real,  practicable,  usable  and  de- 
sirable to  use  to  every  student,  then  we  must  stir 
are  the  ideal  actions  taught  and  also  just  how 
they  may  come  into  his  own  experience.  The 
up  every  student  to  find  out  for  himself  just  what 
first  is  not  diiBficult ;  it  is  easy  to  get  boys  and  girls 
discussing  the  conduct  of  a  character  in  the  Bible, 
or,  even,  when  virtues  are  presented  in  abstract, 
to  lead  them  to  discuss  concrete  illustrations. 
Here  is  a  suggestion  of  a  simple  plan  for  enlist- 
ing the  child's  activities  and  making  ideals  con- 
crete to  him: 

GOLDEIT   DEED   BOOKS 

When  the  lesson  has  been  taught,  ask  the 
pupils  to  give  any  instances  of  conduct  similar 
to  that  exemplified  in  the  lesson,  any  instances 
they  have  seen  or  have  read.    After  these  have 

167 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

been  discussed,  give  each  pupil  a  blank  book,  of 
the  usual  copy-book  or  composition-book  size,  and 
tell  them  that  you  and  they  together  are  going  to 
jnake  a  set  of  ^'Golden  Deed  books."  The  lesson 
next  Sunday  is  on,  we  will  say,  Kindness  to  the 
Needy;  now,  during  the  week  they  are  to  watch 
for  instances  of  kindness  of  that  kind.  They  can 
either  write  out  an  account  of  what  they  read  or 
see,  or  they  can  clip  it  out  of  paper  or  magazine. 
The  clippings  and  stories  are  to  be  brought  into 
the  class  with  the  blank  books,  and  the  class  will, 
after  the  lesson  period,  decide  whether  each  one  is 
worthy  to  go  in  the  book  of  the  pupil  who  brought 
it.  The  best  instance,  the  one  adjudged  by  the 
class  to  best  illustrate  the  virtue,  will  be  distin- 
guished by  a  star  pasted  over  the  page  on  which 
it  is  inserted  in  the  pupil's  book.  After  this  the 
subject  for  the  following  Sunday  is  announced 
and  the  pupils  are  encouraged  to  look  out  for 
good  illustrative  examples. 

It  is  well  to  suggest  that  the  illustrations 
chosen  should  be  as  nearly  like  in  spirit  to  the 
lesson  story  as  possible.  You  may  be  sure  there 
will  be  no  failure,  under  these  circumstances,  to 
read  the  lesson  before  next  Sunday.  You  will 
also  find  the  children  discussing  among  themselves 
not  only  the  events  and  the  illustrations,  but 
the  lesson  itself  and  the  moral  and  religious  sig- 
nificances of  the  lesson.  You  will  not  need,  either, 
to  hunt  through  encyclopaedias  of  illustration  to 
find  the  right  anecdotes  or  stories ;  the  pupils  will 

168 


MAKING  THE  LESSON  REAL 

fumisli  the  stories,  and  they  will  be  their  own; 
they  will  be  real  and  vital  to  them. 

The  *^ Golden  Deed  Book"  becomes  a  record 
of  thought,  observation  and  activity  turned  week 
after  week  on  practical  duties  of  the  right  life. 
The  lessons  learned  this  way  are  not  easily  for- 
gotten, for  they  are  impressed  with  the  heat  of  a 
stimulated  imagination  and  the  vigour  of  a  spon- 
taneous interest. 

INTEREST  THAT  FLOWS  OVER 

One  result,  quite  likely  to  follow  in  every  in- 
stance, is  that  the  children  will  be  found  anxious 
to  talk  with  the  teacher  over  the  illustrations  and 
the  examples  they  have  found.  They  will  not 
wait  until  Sunday.  They  will  come  over  to  see 
you  or  call  you  up,  it  may  be.  It  is  a  good  sign 
when  class  interest  flows  over  into  the  week. 

But  the  main  point  is  that  such  a  method  re- 
lates the  religious  teaching  to  the  child's  real 
world.  It  takes  religion  out  of  remote  regions, 
out  of  the  realm  of  the  unreal  which  is  to  be  found 
in  books  alone,  and  it  gives  it  meaning  for  the 
things  which  the  child  knows  as  his  world.  It 
should  help  a  child  to  realize  that  God  is  in  His 
world  to-day,  that  He  walks  with  men  as  truly  as 
He  walked  with  ancient  patriarchs,  that  He  moves 
us  to  good  and  would  withhold  us  from  evil,  that 
He  is  supremely  interested  in  our  everyday  af- 
fairs, in  little  kindnesses  and  thoughtfulness. 

This  plan  need  not  crowd  the  lesson-hour  un- 
169 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

duly;  for  that  matter,  it  would  do  no  liarm  so 
long  as  it  crowded  it  with  that  which  was  perti- 
nent to  the  lesson  and  accomplished  the  purpose 
of  the  school,  the  development  of  the  child  as  a 
religious  person.  But  the  pasting  and  trimming 
and  fitting  into  the  books  should  all  be  done  at 
home,  the  class  only  selecting  those  records  which 
were  worthy,  and  perhaps  planning  the  proper 
placing  of  the  different  examples.  No  rewards 
would  be  given  for  these  books ;  they  would  carry 
with  them  their  own.  But  a  plan  could  easily  be 
worked  out  by  which  the  books  in  each  class  hav- 
ing the  highest  number  of  stars  should  be  pre- 
served in  the  library  of  the  school. 


170 


CHAPTER  XIX 

ADVANTAGES  INVENTORIED 

We  have  been  saying  a  good  deal  for  a  long 
time  about  the  shortcomings,  disadvantages  and 
difficulties  in  Sunday  school  work;  might  it  not 
be  worth  while  to  consider  whether  we  do  not 
have  also  many  encouraging  advantages  in  this 
work?  Some  people  without  a  sense  of  propor- 
tion have  fallen  into  the  habit  of  rather  gleefully 
drawing  comparisons  between  the  work  done  in 
the  public  schools  and  that  in  the  Sunday  schools, 
until  the  teachers  in  the  latter  institutions  have 
almost  lost  heart,  realizing  their  serious  handi- 
caps in  any  competition  with  the  former. 

A  DEFINITE  PUEPOSE 

If,  however,  we  are  considering  the  real  pur- 
poses of  any  educational  activity,  if  we  mean  by 
education  the  leading  of  a  life  out  into  its  full 
development,  into  fulness  of  life,  powers  and 
service,  then,  for  such  purposes  we  are  likely  to 
discover  that  the  Sunday  school  not  only  has  no 
monopoly  of  handicaps,  but,  on  the  contrary,  is 
at  a  striking  advantage  over  every  other  educa- 
tional agency.  No  matter  how  earnestly  we  may 
desire  the  character  product  from  the  agencies  of 

171 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

general  education,  we  have  to  acknowledge  that, 
at  present  at  any  rate,  this  is  likely  to  be  re- 
garded as  only  a  by-product.  The  schools  are 
engrossed  with  ** studies'^  so  largely  as  to  almost 
lose  sight  of  the  student.  Most  public-school 
teachers  are  deeply  concerned  for  the  moral  wel- 
fare of  their  charges,  but  they  are  so  bound  down 
by  the  requirements  of  a  curriculum  that  they 
must  give  their  almost  undivided  attention  to 
arithmetic,  history,  literature  and  this  and  the 
other  required  subject.  But  in  the  Sunday  school 
no  purpose  other  than  that  of  character  develop- 
ment can  be  before  the  teacher.  This  school  exists 
for  the  leading  of  lives  into  their  fulness,  into 
spiritual  self-realization  and  development.  The 
teacher  has  no  other  work  there ;  the  courses  are, 
or  should  be,  designed  with  no  other  aim;  the 
exercises  should  be  conducted  with  this  as  the 
sole  purpose.  It  means  more  than  we  are  ready 
to  reckon  that  here  is  an  institution  explicitly, 
specifically,  definitely  for  the  sole  purpose  of  re- 
ligious education.  Pupils  come  into  this  school 
with  this  clearly  understood.  The  truth  is  that 
Sunday  school  pupils  go  away  from  the  school 
disappointed  or  disgusted,  not  because  too  much 
religion  is  taught  there,  but  because  religion  is 
not  clearly  and  definitely  taught ;  because  teachers 
have  lost  sight  of  the  real  ends  of  all  their  work, 
they  have  substituted  means  for  ends  and  have 
made  the  teaching  of  Biblical  history,  archaeology 
and  literature  the  objective  in  the  school  instead 

172 


ADVANTAGES  INVENTOEIED 

of  using  these  simply  as  means  of  securing  or 
bringing  about  the  spiritual  development  of  the 
pupil. 

When  I  go  to  a  Sunday  school,  either  as 
teacher  or  as  a  pupil,  I  go  there  for  religious  edu- 
cation as  clearly  as  I  look  for  a  meal  when  I  go 
to  a  restaurant.  It  appears  to  me  as  no  small 
advantage  that  this  school  exists  for  this  clearly 
avowed  purpose. 

LAEGER  LIFE  INFLUENCE 

We  have  often  thought  of  the  advantage  of 
the  public  school  in  having  the  pupil  for  so  many 
more  hours  every  week.  No  one  would  fail  to 
wish  that  the  Sunday  school  might  have  more 
periods  or  longer  ones  every  week;  in  fact,  I 
believe  this  is  not  impossible.  But  does  not  this 
school  have  an  advantage  in  the  fact  that  it  can 
often  watch  and  further  the  spiritual  develop- 
ment of  a  life  continuously  through  many  years? 
Though  this  may  not  be  properly  done  directly 
by  any  one  teacher,  it  means  much  that  the  whole 
school  has  this  long  touch  with  lives. 

THE    GREAT   TEXT 

The  public  schools  are  in  a  ferment  which  is 
nearly  continuous  over  text-books ;  whatever  other 
text-books  the  Sunday  school  may  use — and  there 
certainly  will  have  to  be  some — it  still  has  as  the 
principal  source  of  its  materials  of  study  that 
book  which  has  been  the  source  of  ideals,  the  f  oun- 

173 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

tain  of  inspiration,  the  secret  of  strength  for 
countless  generations,  that  about  which  our  most 
hallowed  memories  and  some  of  our  richest  his- 
toric traditions  cluster,  the  great  reservoir  of 
the  richest  religious  heritage  of  all  the  centuries 
of  the  old  era  and  the  source  of  the  spiritual  hope 
of  the  new.  The  Bible  has  been  excluded  from 
the  public  schools — many  of  us  believe  fortu- 
nately, under  existing  circumstances — ^but  this 
leaves  the  Sunday  school  with  the  by  no  means 
small  advantage  of  having  the  greatest  religious 
literary  treasury  as  its  principal  subject  of  study. 
This  does  not  mean  that  the  school  exists  to  teach 
the  Bible ;  it  is  not  in  any  sense  a  miniature  the- 
ological seminary,  but  that  it  exists  to  lead  lives 
into  their  spiritual  fulness  and  has  the  finest 
source  of  spiritual  inspiration  and  information 
at  its  disposal  in  doing  this. 

THE  BACKING  OF  TEADITIONS 

The  traditions  of  the  Sunday  school  are  to 
our  advantage.  One  may  well  be  proud  to  serve 
in  any  way  an  institution  with  such  a  noble  past 
of  self-sacrifice,  of  painstaking  devotion.  Much 
of  our  just  criticism  halts  on  our  lips  when  we 
think  of  the  price  that  has  been  paid  for  the 
Sunday  school,  of  the  blood  and  tears  that  have 
gone  into  its  making,  of  the  men  and  women  who, 
Sunday  after  Sunday,  in  ignorance  and  weakness, 
despite  ridicule  and  opposition — often  as  bitter 
within  the  church  as  without^ — paid  the  price  for 

174 


ADVANTAGES  INVENTORIED 

the  religious  education  of  the  young.  Let  no 
one  say  a  word  against  the  devotion  of  the  public- 
school  teacher;  many  of  them  are  serving  and  sac- 
rificing from  the  holiest  motives;  but  we  must 
not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  the  Sunday  school 
has  its  bede  roll  of  heroes  and  martyrs,  names 
unknown  to  general  fame,  humble  folk  in  hidden 
villages,  who  have  made  it  possible.  So,  too,  the 
new  day  for  the  Sunday  school  comes  in  because 
some  saw  its  vision  and  were  willing  to  labour 
for  its  dawn;  they,  too,  met  ridicule  and  scorn, 
but  they  looked  beyond  all  with  eyes  of  faith,  and 
with  a  devotion  and  at  a  cost  that  may  never  be 
told  they  pressed  on;  and  we  are  entering  into 
their  labours. 

What  could  not  one  tell  of  the  advantages  of 
the  modern  Sunday  school,  the  rich  heritage  of 
scientific  studies  coming  to  us,  the  fruitage  of 
all  the  labours  of  the  past,  the  services  of  educa- 
tional leaders  everywhere  made  available  to  the 
humblest  teachers,  the  wealth  of  religious  litera- 
ture, the  wider  recognition  of  the  importance  of 
the  school,  the  according  to  it  of  its  rightful  place 
in  the  church?  Is  not  this  a  day  the  Lord  has 
made  in  which  we  may  rejoice  and  may  serve 
with  new  hope  and  vigour? 


175 


CHAPTEE  XX 

THE  PARENTS  AT   SCHOOL 

There  can  be  no  donbt  abont  it,  some  day  we  will 
have  the  compulsory  education  of  parents.  Not 
all  the  states  have  laws  for  the  compulsory  edu- 
cation of  children.  They  had  better  step  lively, 
or  some  will  have  the  laws  compelling  all  parents 
to  be  properly  educated  before  they  get  into  the 
old  line. 

Surely,  if  we  have  a  right  to  insist  that  chil- 
dren shall  be  educated  for  youth  and  manhood, 
have  we  not  at  least  an  equal  right  to  insist  that 
parents  shall  be  trained  for  their  duties  as  par- 
ents? We  come  more  and  more  to  see  with  defi- 
niteness  that  the  problems  of  society  are  personal 
problems  and  that  most  potent  agency  for  per- 
sonal training  still  is  the  home.  The  parents  are 
the  child's  first  educators;  they  teach  him  for 
longer  periods  daily  and  over  a  longer  period  of 
years  and  with  the  aid  of  more  forces  and  of  more 
natural  forces  than  do  any  other  teachers. 

THE  SCHOOL  TRAINING  PARENTS 

What  has  this  to  do  with  the  Sunday  school? 
This  at  least,  that  no  parent  is  fitted  for  home 
duties  unless  he  has  learned  to  take  the  home  in 

176 


THE  PAEENTS  AT  SCHOOL 

terms  of  religious  opportunity,  unless  he  has 
trained  to  be  the  spiritual  guide  of  his  child.  The 
Sunday  school  is  the  church  engaged  in  the  re- 
ligious education  of  her  people;  has  she  not  a 
responsibility  for  the  preparation  of  those  of 
her  people  who  are  the  direct  religious  educators 
of  the  young,  the  parents? 

The  special  reason  for  parents  being  taught 
in  the  school  of  the  church  is  not  that  this  school 
wants  to  have  the  statistical  satisfaction  of  count- 
ing everj^body  on  its  roll,  but  that  these  people 
have  unusual  responsibilities,  for  which  the 
church  ought  to  prepare  them.  Parents  have  a 
right  to  look  to  the  church  to  aid  them  in  dis- 
charging their  duties  as  the  religious  educators 
of  their  children.  The  Sunday  school  is  the 
proper  agency  in  the  church  to  undertake  this 
task.  It  makes  no  real  difference  whether  in  some 
church  the  classes  for  the  parents  shall  meet  in 
the  week  or  at  night,  so  long  as  the  church  says 
to  these  parents,  Here  is  the  opportunity,  the 
one  that  suits  you  best,  to  meet  and  study  and 
discuss  the  duties  and  problems  that  are  yours; 
we  will  furnish  you  wise  leadership  and  instruc- 
tion. 

The  first  ten  years  of  home-making  in  any  nor- 
mal family  are  bound  to  be  trying  years.  Not 
only  have  we  the  adjustment  of  two  lives,  one  to 
another,  but  soon  we  have  the  coordinated  over- 
sight which  these  two  must  exercise  over  other 
lives.    The  young  mother  and  the  conscientious 

177 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

father  are  botii  oppressed  witii  the  problems  of 
infant  training,  of  discipline  and  of  home  edu- 
cation. They  seek  help  on  every  hand.  They 
are  quite  likely  to  meet  the  tried  warrior  of  the 
home  who  says,  *^0h,  you  will  learn  by  experi- 
ence.'^ No  doubt  they  will,  but  that  is  certainly 
hard  on  the  child,  who  must  be  experimented  on. 
We  cannot  afford  to  learn  by  experience  if  we 
are  handling  even  less  precious  material  than 
children's  lives.  How  foolish  to  waste  the  tears 
of  bitterness  in  experience,  to  lose  the  years  and 
to  mar  the  fabric  in  which  we  work  when  there 
is  the  accumulated  experience  of  other  lives  avail- 
able for  us! 

If  Mothers'  Clubs,  Parent-Teacher  Associa- 
tions, Child- Welfare  Leagues  and  other  like  or- 
ganizations feel  it  their  duty  to  train  parents  in 
the  physical  welfare  of  the  children,  how  much 
more  it  is  the  duty  of  the  church  to  gather  the 
parents  of  her  children  and  see  that  they  are 
trained  to  the  right  discharge  of  their  religious 
privileges  to  the  children! 

PARENT-TEACHER  ASSOCIATIONS 

Parents  ought  also  to  meet  frequently  with  the 
Sunday  school  officers,  to  understand  together  the 
work  of  the  school.  We  need  parent- teachers ' 
associations  in  the  church  as  well  as  for  the  pub- 
lic schools.  They  should  have  the  aim  of  pro- 
moting mutual  understanding  and  cooperation  in 
all  efforts  for  the  religious  education  of  children. 

178 


THE  PARENTS  AT  SCHOOL 

Parents  need  the  opportunity  to  present  and 
discuss  their  problems  in  the  training  of  their 
children.  Not  long  ago  a  young  mother  came  to 
see  me  almost  heartbroken  with  the  problem  of 
her  five-year-old,  who,  as  she  saw  it,  was  becom- 
ing addicted  to  the  grossest  forms  of  lying.  On 
asking  a  few  questions  it  was  easily  seen  that  the 
child  had  been  simply  exercising  a  normal  and 
vivid  imagination.  She  had  narrated  a  meeting 
with  three  bears  of  different  hues:  green,  blue 
and  black.  The  adventure  was  a  blood-curdling 
one.  But  the  mother  thought  the  child  was  giving 
evidence  of  total  depravity,  when  she  was  really 
showing  signs  of  literary  creative  powers.  Now, 
this  is  but  a  small  instance  of  parents'  problems. 
Some  one  trained  in  child  study,  one  in  sympathy 
with  the  actualities  of  the  home  and  parenthood, 
and  one  seeking  the  religious  aim  could  wonder- 
fully help  parents  to  efficiency  and  to  peace  of 
mind  in  the  religious  development  of  their  chil- 
dren. 

Parents  need  a  chance  to  work  out  together 
the  difficult  problem  of  family  worship,  of  specific 
forms  of  religion  in  the  home.  We  do  a  lot  of 
loose  talking  about  this.  We  insist  on  its  ne- 
cessity. When  have  we  taken  time  to  study  the 
real  facts  as  they  are  to-day,  or  to  attempt  a  so- 
lution of  their  difficulties! 

In  many  communities  parents  need  explicit 
instructions  in  the  physical  wellheing  of  the  home, 
and  particularly  in  the  care  of  their  children  in 

179 


EFFICIENCY  EST  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

health.  They  are  still  in  the  bonds  of  ignorance 
on  child  hygiene.  The  health,  the  nourishing  of 
a  child  has  so  much  to  do  with  his  character  re- 
sources that  the  church  cannot  afford  to  neglect  it. 

Parents'  classes  would  for  their  leadership 
call  to  the  school  many  persons  who  now  have 
no  opportunity  to  serve,  those  who  would  be  in- 
terested in  this  work,  while  feeling  themselves 
not  adapted  to  any  other  kind  of  instruction. 
"Why  not  begin  with  a  few  parents,  have  a  wise, 
trained  leader,  and  watch  this  department  of  use- 
fulness grow. 

Courses  of  study  for  parents  in  the  Sunday 
school  are  now  available  and  in  use;  see  notably 
the  excellent  course  prepared  by  Prof.  Edward  P. 
St.  John  (published  by  the  Pilgrim  Press,  Boston. 
Parents  should  read  ^^Eeligious  Education  in  the 
Home,"  by  Prof.  Clyde  W.  Votaw  (published  by 
The  Eeligious  Education  Association — 25  cents — 
Chicago).  Also  see  the  author's  **Home  as  a 
School  for  Social  Living"  (American  Baptist 
Publication  Society,  20  cents). 


180 


CHAPTER  XXI 

THE  ADULT  DEPAKTMENT  AND  THE   HOME 

Nothing  ever  comes  nearer  to  any  of  us  than  our 
homes;  nothing  does  more  to  make  us  what  we 
are.  This  is  almost  as  true  of  the  influence  of 
the  home  over  the  adult  who  serves  it  as  of  the 
child  to  whom  it  ministers.  No  educational,  no 
moral  program  will  ever  find  success,  and  no  re- 
ligious activity  find  fruitage  in  life  unless  it  is  in 
cooperation  with  the  home. 

As  society  is  to-day  organized,  no  matter  what 
we  do,  nor  what  our  measure  of  success  in  mar- 
ket, factory,  school  or  church,  if  we  fail  in  our 
homes  we  fail  in  all  else.  This  is  not  a  matter 
of  sentiment;  it  is  a  matter  of  practical  concern 
in  the  business  of  character  development,  for  the 
home  is  the  most  direct  and  effective  force  in  this 
work  of  personal  religious  education. 

The  purpose  of  religion  is  not  the  conserva- 
tion of  institutions,  nor  the  elaboration  of  a  phi- 
losophy, nor  the  maintenance  of  ritual,  nor  even 
the  repetition  of  emotional  experiences;  these 
are  justified  and  have  a  place  only  so  far  as  they 
minister  to  the  business  of  saving  people,  bring- 

181 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

ing  people  to  fulness  of  life;  that  is  tlie  reason 
the  church  has  such  a  tremendous  stake  in  the 
home. 

Sometimes  it  seems  as  though  we  were  more 
concerned  with  making  our  children  feel  at  home 
in  the  church  than  in  getting  them  to  feel  the 
church  in  the  home,  the  beauty,  sanctity  and  value 
of  the  home;  that  here  is  the  place,  above  all 
others,  where  altar  fires  burn,  where  the  deeper, 
lasting  values  of  life  are  discovered,  and  where 
life  reaches  its  best. 

APOSTLES  vs.  CHILDKEN 

Not  long  ago  a  lady  in  an  Eastern  city  said  to 
the  writer:  '*I'm  greatly  puzzled  over  my  class 
of  young  women.  You  know  they're  nearly  all 
young  mothers;  many  of  them  work  in  the  fac- 
tories, and  when  I  try  to  talk  to  them  about  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles  they  simply  will  not  listen. 
They  want  to  spend  all  the  time  talking  about 
their  babies  at  home." 

Surely  the  answer  was  easy  to  render :  *  ^  Your 
dilemma  is  your  opportunity.  These  young 
mothers  need  the  very  matters  which  you  object 
to;  the  subject  of  their  children  much  more  than 
they  need  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  Let  the  apos- 
tles rest  for  a  while;  you  will  find  them  there 
when  you  want  them  again ;  but  you  will  not  find 
the  babies  there.  They  will  have  become  big  boys 
and  girls  in  a  few  years.  What  sort  of  boys  and 
girls  they  will  be  may  depend  very  much  on  the 

182 


ADULT  DEPARTMENT  AND  THE  HOME 

teaching  of  their  mothers  in  the  school  of  the 
church. ' ' 

What  a  splendid  opportunity  that  woman  had 
with  her  group  of  young  mothers,  every  one  eager 
to  bring  up  the  problems  of  her  home  and  her 
children;  every  one  hungry  for  explicit  teaching 
on  her  religious  duty  as  a  mother,  and  on  how  to 
perform  that  duty  in  the  training  of  her  child  I 
Is  it  possible  to  conceive  of  a  higher,  holier  task 
than  that,  to  inspire  and  guide  parents  to  a  re- 
ligious sense  of  their  duties  and  opportunities  in 
the  home!  Sometimes  one  is  tempted  to  think 
that  the  Sunday  school  is  more  interested  in  tell- 
ing about  a  home  in  heaven  than  in  teaching 
people  how  to  make  their  homes  heavenly  now. 

HELPING  PAKE  NTS 

But,  to  think  a  little  further  in  the  problem 
presented  by  the  teacher  and  her  class  of  young 
mothers :  Specifically  what  could  she  do  for  them? 
Perhaps,  though  this  may  not  necessarily  be  the 
case,  the  best  thing  she  could  do  would  be  to 
watch  keenly  for  just  the  right  woman,  the  mother 
of  experience  and  good,  broad,  thorough  training, 
who  could  teach  those  young  women  how  to  be 
good  mothers  and  how  to  make  their  homes  what 
they  might  be.  However,  such  a  person  ought 
to  be  more  than  a  mother  of  home  experience; 
she  ought  to  be  a  student  of  the  child,  one  who  has 
learned  the  laws  of  child  life  not  only  in  the 
tedious  school  of  experience,  but  also,  at  least  to 

183 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

some  extent,  in  that  of  scientific  study  and  ob- 
servation. We  too  easily  assume  that  a  good 
mother  of  long  experience  will  make  a  valuable 
teacher  of  young  and  inexperienced  mothers.  She 
may  not  know  how  to  make  her  experience  avail- 
able to  them;  and,  too,  that  experience  may  not 
have  taught  her  half  as  much  about  children  as 
some  younger  woman  has  learned  by  patient 
study.  Be  sure,  however,  the  teacher  of  such  a 
class  knows  children  and  child-nature.  Be  sure, 
also,  that  she  has  the  conception  of  the  home  as 
a  religious  institution,  existing  primarily  for  the 
religious  purpose  of  training  lives  for  right 
living. 

COURSES  ON  THE  HOME 

Given  such  a  teacher,  what  could  she  teach? 
Would  she  not  begin  with  a  study  of  the  home? 
That  might  very  well  be  introduced  by  the  ex- 
amples of  beautiful  home  life  found  in  the  Bible, 
home  life  under  the  spreading  tent,  in  Jerusalem, 
in  Bethany  and  Nazareth.  She  would  seek  to 
show  that  homes  come  in  our  civilization,  in  the 
working  out  of  the  divine  will  amongst  men,  for 
definite  purposes.  They  exist  not  to  furnish  cheap 
hotels,  not  to  be  warehouses  of  cumbersome  bric-a- 
brac,  not  as  instruments  for  social  aggrandize- 
ment; rather  they  are  little  social  organizations 
for  the  great  and  sacred  purpose  of  furnishing 
to  developing  lives  the  very  best,  constant,  nur- 
tural,  environmental,  educational  influences  for 
the  steady  growth  and  perfection  of  high,  godly 

184 


ADULT  DEPARTMENT  AND  THE  HOME 

character.  It  would  be  worth  all  beside  just  to 
make  it  axiomatic  to  those  young  mothers  that, 
no  matter  how  their  homes  might  succeed  materi- 
ally, socially,  aBsthetically,  unless  they  succeeded 
in  training  boys  and  girls  to  honour,  truth,  human 
love  and  divine  likeness,  they  failed  most  miser- 
ably. 

Then  such  a  teacher  might  very  well  take  some 
one  of  the  many  recent  good  books  on  the  train- 
ing of  children  and,  reading  its  sections  one  at  a 
time,  use  it  as  a  guide  for  discussions.  Miss  Har- 
rison's  **A  Study  of  Child  Nature*'  would  be  ex- 
cellent for  this  purpose.  Later  the  class  would 
discuss  Patterson  DuBois's  *^  Culture  of  Jus- 
tice,'*  or  E.  A.  Abbott's  *' Training  of  Parents, *' 
or  Dean  Hodge's  ** Training  of  Children  in  Eeli- 
gion."  Such  books  suggest  specific  problems  in 
the  care  and  discipline  of  children,  and  they  keep 
steadily  before  the  mind  the  ideal  of  the  parent 
as  the  religious  educator  of  the  child. 

THE  WEIGHTIEST  MATTEKS 

Young  mothers,  such  as  the  class  who  consti- 
tuted the  problem  described,  are  not  the  only  ones 
who  need  this  instruction.  It  is  a  strange  fact,  a 
sad  fact,  that  we  seem  to  leave  the  most  impor- 
tant affairs  of  life  to  hazard  while  we  give  our 
energies  to  organizing  the  lesser  ones.  We  all 
know  that  the  home  is  the  most  important  insti- 
tution in  our  modem  life,  yet,  while  we  train 
children  to  be  directors  of  factories,  lawyers,  doc- 

185 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

tors  and  teachers,  who  ever  heard  of  serious  at- 
tempts to  train  them  to  he  parents^  Some  three 
years  ago  the  writer  gave  three  lectures  in  a 
course  to  young  men  on  the  following  subjects: 
*^A  Man's  Eolations  with  His  Woman  Friends,'* 
'^The  Ethics  of  Courtship,''  *^The  Ethics  of 
Home  Life."  Those  who  listened  afterward  ex- 
pressed their  surprise  at  the  subjects  and  their 
uniform  experience  that  neither  in  public  school, 
Sunday  school  nor  college  had  they  received  ex- 
plicit instruction  in  these  subjects.  No,  we  en- 
gage the  most  highly  trained  experts  to  teach  the 
record  found  in  fossils,  but  training  in  the  affairs 
that  directly  make  human  character  we  leave  to 
chance.  Professors  to  teach  the  dead  past,  but 
the  living  present  of  the  home  and  the  child's 
character-development  we  leave  to  the  would-be 
wits  of  the  alleged  funny  columns  of  the  daily 
papers,  to  cheap  jokes  about  mothers-in-law,  do- 
mestic infelicities  and  youthful  escapades,  or  in 
the  hideous,  often  soul-blasting  revelations  of  di- 
vorce scandals.  For  the  least  child  in  the  school 
and  on  to  the  mother  and  father  there  should  be 
religious  instruction  in  the  life  of  the  home. 

Doubtless  one  of  the  first  results  of  a  public 
announcement  that  there  would  be  classes  in  study 
on  Home-making  for  the  Young  Women's  classes 
would  be  a  giggle.  The  giddy  folks  who  think 
on  the  surface  of  things  would  picture  such  a 
class  studying  **How  to  Catch  a  Husband"  for 
the  first  lesson  and  '*How  to  Keep  Him  Happy" 

186 


ADULT  DEPARTMENT  AND  THE  HOME 

for  the  second.  Yet  the  young  women  and  the 
young  men  are  the  very  ones  who  most  of  all  need 
such  studies.  'V\Tiy  should  it  seem  a  foolish  thing, 
either  immodest  or  ridiculous,  to  so  train  those 
who  are  soon  to  be  home-makers  that  they  may 
not  make  shipwreck  of  the  home!  Which  is  bet- 
ter to  teach  them,  the  laws  of  social  and  religious 
living  in  the  home  or  to  let  them  pass  through  the 
heart-racking  experience  of  learning  domestic  ad- 
justments just  as  though  they  were  the  first  couple 
in  the  world's  story?  Education  is  the  acquisi- 
tion of  the  organized  experience  of  the  race ;  why 
should  not  our  organized  experience  on  the  home 
be  imparted  to  those  young  people  before  they 
found  their  own  homes? 

A  SACKED  SUBJECT 

Does  some  one  say  such  studies  are  secular 
rather  than  sacred?  Does  some  one  object,  the 
Sunday  school  exists  to  teach  the  Bible?  How 
simple  is  the  answer!  Whatever  helps  directly 
or  indirectly  to  make  life  more  sacred,  to  stimu- 
late men  to  be  more  like  God  and  to  make  this  life 
holier  and  more  heavenly  is  surely  sacred  in  the 
very  best  sense.  Nothing  could  be  more  truly, 
basely  secular  than  such  a  study  of  even  God  or 
heaven  as  made  one  only  more  selfish.  Of  Sun- 
day school  studies  we  may  say.  By  their  fruits 
ye  shall  know  them.  This  school  exists  to  teach 
the  Bible  only  as  the  Bible  is  a  means  to  Chris- 
tian character  and  service.    If  the  Bible  cannot 

187 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

be  taugM  so  as  to  make  us  better  home-makers, 
better  religious  educators  of  our  children,  better 
fathers  and  mothers  and  children,  we  must  find 
some  book  that  can.  Certainly  we  all  believe  that 
the  Bible  can  be  so  taught  and  that  it  does  have 
that  fruitage.  The  point  for  which  we  would  con- 
tend just  now  is  that  we  should  definitely  aim  at 
that  result.  We  should  seek  to  use  the  Bible  and 
every  other  means  of  Christian  culture  for  this 
high  and  holy  purpose,  to  make  the  home  of  every 
student  in  the  school  a  really  religious  institution. 
Every  department  of  the  school  ought  definitely 
to  plan  to  train  its  students  to  the  efficient  ex- 
pression of  their  religious  life  in  and  by  means  of 
their  homes. 

You  will  often  hear  the  lament  that  family 
worship  is  declining.  Might  it  not  be  that  if,  in 
our  religious  institutions,  especially  in  the  Sun- 
day school,  we  had  been  definitely  trained  to  think 
of  the  home  as  a  religious  institution,  this  lament 
would  not  have  been  so  prevalent?  When  the 
church  neglects  the  home,  the  home  quickly  neg- 
lects religion.  If  you  would  have  the  family 
altar  as  a  vital,  spiritual  necessity  in  the  home, 
you  must  train  these  young  men  and  women  to 
understand  their  homes,  to  know  how  to  organize 
and  direct  a  home  as  a  religious  institution. 
Nothing  would  do  more  to  keep  alive  the  fire  of 
dying  love  on  the  family  altar,  making  it  the 
very  light  of  the  home,  than  to  be  able  in  our 
Sunday  school  groups  to  discuss  our  religious 

188 


ADULT  DEPAETMENT  AND  THE  HOME 

character  problems  of  the  home.  That  would  set 
up  the  habitual  inference  that  homes  are  sacred 
places. 

PAEENTS'    COUNCILS 

We  would  soon  find  that  such  studies  would 
extend  far  beyond  the  hour  for  the  regular  school. 
Parents'  councils  would  be  organized,  consisting 
principally  of  the  younger  parents.  Why  should 
not  younger  women  meet  under  a  competent  in- 
structor, a  woman  physician,  to  learn  that  of 
which  many  are  so  sadly  ignorant,  the  physical 
laws  of  family  life,  reproduction,  the  principles 
of  physical  holiness?  If  the  church  does  not  teach 
these  things,  who  will!  Who  can  more  fittingly 
carry  on  the  elementary  work  of  the  public  school 
in  this  respect  than  the  church?  If  we  really 
believe  that  the  physical  life  of  the  child  has  so 
much  to  do  with  its  character  development,  why 
should  we  leave  fathers  and  mothers  to  pick  up 
the  laws  of  its  physical  well-being  by  chance? 
Why  not  teach  eugenics  in  the  church?  Why  not 
so  teach  parents  the  laws  of  boy-nature  that  they 
may  know  how  to  direct  it  to  do  something  more 
profitable  than  breaking  windows  and  stealing 
dogs? 

FINDING   TEACHEKS 

But,  you  say,  having  so  many  additional  sub- 
jects involves  additional  teachers,  and  we  haven't 
enough  as  it  is.  No,  it  is  hard  to  get  teachers 
for  ancient  history,  literature  and  philosophy. 
But  such  specific  subjects  as  these  outlined  on  the 

189 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

home  have  teachers  waiting  for  them.  Have  you 
no  doctors,  public-school  people;  are  there  none 
who  have  specialized  in  these  very  subjects  in 
your  community?  Just  ask  that  lawyer  to  teach 
a  class  of  young  men  or  women  a  short  course 
on  marriage  laws  in  different  times  and  countries, 
or  on  the  development  of  the  ideal  of  the  Chris- 
tian home,  or  that  young  doctor  to  teach  a  course 
on  physical  foundations  of  character,  and  see 
what  will  happen.  Specialized  work  finds  work- 
ers. 

The  whole  matter  is  in  a  nutshell :  if  we  would 
have  a  religious  people  we  must  have  religious 
homes ;  if  we  would  have  religious  homes  we  must 
train  religious  home-makers;  the  church  as  the 
religious  agency  in  our  life  must  train  people  to 
the  religious  duty  of  right  home-making.  The 
Sunday  school  is  the  specific  agency  in  the  church 
for  this  training. 


190 


CHAPTER  XXII 

THE  KUEAL  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

By  far  the  greater  number  of  Sunday  schools  in 
the  United  States  are  rural  schools.  Statistics 
show  that  the  average  number  of  scholars  in  the 
Sunday  schools  of  this  country  is  about  eighty. 
And  since  there  are  a  very  large  number  of 
schools  running  up  into  the  thousands  in  member- 
ship, it  is  evident  that  we  have  many  more  small 
schools  than  large  ones.  Complaint  is  common 
that  nearly  all  that  is  written  on  the  Sunday 
school  is  written  for  the  benefit  and  help  of  those 
who  are  working  in  the  city  schools.  From  the 
viewpoint  of  one  who  has  been  pastor  of  some 
truly  rural  churches  and  who  has  met  the  prob- 
lems of  the  country  school  at  first  hand,  this  criti- 
cism seems  to  have  justification  in  fact.  It  is  true 
that  the  principles  that  apply  to  the  city  school 
usually  apply  also  to  the  country  school ;  but  the 
application  of  those  principles  is  not  always  the 
same,  and  it  is  impossible  for  one  whose  experi- 
ence has  been  entirely  urban  to  know  just  what 
are  the  peculiar  problems  applying  to  those 
schools  in  remote  communities,  where  the  little 
white  church  stands  in  the  pine  grove  and  the 

191 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

long  lines  of  hitching  rails  constitute  the  bounda- 
ries of  its  lot. 

KURAL   ADVANTAGES 

First,  the  rural  Sunday  school  has  some  dis- 
tinct advantages.  It  has  ordinarily  and  normally 
a  better  educational  environment  than  the  city 
schools.  Its  pupils  find  better  educational  oppor- 
tunities. The  country  boy  who  has  the  chores  to 
do,  who  must  drive  the  team  and  care  for  them, 
develops  resources  and  is  constantly  under  the 
stimuli  of  situations  that  produce  in  him  powers 
of  initiative,  self-dependence  and  observation 
which  the  city  lad  often  lacks.  He  may  not  have 
art  galleries,  but  he  has  nature  and  quickening 
environment.  Much  of  the  Bible  is  an  out-door 
book,  intelligible  only  to  those  who  are  accus- 
tomed to  think  only  in  terms  of  out-doors.  Then, 
in  the  country  community  the  lives  of  all  in  the 
school  are  bound  closer  together  than  is  the  case 
in  the  city.  One  knows  one 's  neighbours  who  live 
over  the  hill  much  better  than  one  can  get  to 
know  one's  neighbour  who  lives  in  the  next  apart- 
ment. 

Country  folks  prize  all  social  occasions.  The 
Sunday  school  offers  relief  from  the  monotony 
of  the  life  on  the  farm.  It  becomes  a  social  oc- 
casion. It  is  built  on  social  life.  The  country 
Sunday  school  competes  with  fewer  distractions 
than  does  the  city  school.  It  is  less  likely  to  suffer 
deterioration  from  Sunday  night  dissipation.  It 
is  less  likely  to  hear  excuses  of  so  many  social 

192 


THE  RUEAL  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

engagements.  There  are  even  advantages  in  the 
very  smallness  of  the  school  in  that  this  offers  op- 
portunities for  individual  treatment  of  scholars. 
The  large  school  is  liable  to  become  institutional. 
The  small  school  may  still  know  all  its  pupils  by 
name  and  watch  them  carefully  and  lead  them 
personally  into  the  larger  life. 

THE  RUKAL  SITUATION 

The  condition  in  the  rural  districts  is  due  to 
a  number  of  causes;  immigration  to  the  country 
has  broken  up  racial  integrity.  Many  a  com- 
munity has  half  a  dozen  nationalities  owning  or 
renting  its  farms,  none  of  whom  have  been  in  the 
melting  pot  long  enough  to  get  fused.  The  in- 
creasing social  compactness  of  the  city  intensifies 
the  feeling  of  separateness  in  the  country;  the 
proximity  of  growing  villages  has  broken  links 
of  rural  unity  such  as  neighbourly  exchange,  serv- 
ice, and  opportunities  for  acquaintance  at  store 
and  postoffice.  The  trolley  has  often  disinte- 
grated a  community  by  taking  away  our  mutual 
dependence.  The  country  lags  behind  the  city  in 
its  thinking  on  social  affairs;  it  is  still  individ- 
ualistic; if  a  case  of  diphtheria  breaks  out  on 
Smith's  farm,  folks  think,  not  of  contagion  of  the 
community,  but  of  aches  and  pains  and  distresses 
in  the  Smith  household.  The  country  church, 
very  much  like  the  city  church,  lags  far  behind 
the  procession  in  its  thinking  on  social  philos- 
ophy; consequently  it  has  no  message  on  social 

193 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

subjects.  They  are  often  tabooed  as  unspiritual, 
too  worldly,  while  the  emphasis  is  on  individual 
salvation,  and  the  hope  held  before  the  people  is 
of  an  egoistic  entrance  into  a  paradise  where  all 
the  seats  are  in  the  dress  circle. 

RUKAL  PROBLEMS 

But  there  are  peculiar  problems  facing  the 
country  school.  First,  those  of  physical  condi- 
tions. The  school  usually  meets  either  in  a  small 
church  or  a  single  room  or  in  a  tiny  public  school 
building,  which  likewise  has  but  one  room.  The 
truth  is,  there  is  no  reason  why  that  little  single- 
room  church  building  should  not  be  built  with 
very  commodious  Sunday  school  rooms.  We  are 
not  yet  so  far  from  the  simple  homes  of  the  past 
that  it  is  impossible  to  say  to  men  of  the  farms. 
Come  to;  let  us  draw  the  stones  and  lumber  and 
take  to  ourselves  the  great  joy  of  building  with 
our  own  hands  a  room  or  rooms  added  to  this 
church  in  which  our  children  can  learn  the  way  of 
life.  Where  this  is  impossible  it  is  often  feasible 
to  take  two  or  three  of  the  classes  into  a  neigh- 
bouring house.  The  schoolhouse  or  the  church  is 
usually  situated  near  to  some  cluster  of  homes, 
though  this  is  not  always  the  case.  In  summer 
time  and  in  favourable  regions  the  class  may  be 
taken  out  under  the  trees  into  the  grove  or  an 
arbour,  and  there  are  many  schools  where  classes 
could  meet  in  such  temporary  but  delightful  quar- 
ters through  the  whole  year. 

194 


THE  EURAL  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

Another  class  of  physical  difficulties  has  to  do 
with  distances  and  weather.  Of  course,  we  all 
know  of  families  that  hesitate  not  at  all  to  drive 
a  dozen  miles  in  the  worst  kind  of  weather  if  a 
circus  is  at  the  other  end,  who  dare  not  drive  to 
Sunday  school  if  the  newspaper  promises  a  storm 
a  week  later.  The  plan  in  operation  in  some 
rural  public  school  districts  has  been  tried  for  the 
Sunday  school  with  success.  That  is,  that  a  bus 
or  carry-all  shall  go  the  rounds  of  the  district, 
picking  up  children  and  taking  them  to  school. 
But  this  is  seldom  necessary  for  the  Sunday 
school.  Usually  some  farmer  or  person  owning 
a  wagon  can  be  found  on  each  of  the  main  routes 
who  will  take  turn  with  others  in  calling  for  the 
children  along  the  road.  This,  however,  should 
be  necessary  only  in  the  case  of  scholars  who  do 
not  have  conveyances,  and  every  school  should 
work  toward  the  ideal  of  a  community  habit  of  all 
the  families  always  going. 

So  many  of  our  rural  districts  are  now  cov- 
ered by  the  telephone  that  the  superintendent  can 
very  well  spend  an  hour  on  Saturday  night  re- 
minding the  families  of  the  school  for  the  next 
day. 

The  babies  constitute  the  real  problem  in  the 
country  school,  especially  where  you  succeed  in 
securing  the  attendance  of  the  whole  family.  The 
best  plan  is  to  put  them  all  together  in  a  nearby 
house  in  charge  of  a  good  mother  and  a  young 
woman  with  the  instincts  for  child  care.    Many  a 

195 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

mother  would  be  likely  to  come  to  Sunday  school 
if  she  knew  that  she  might  lose  sight  of  her  baby 
while  it  was  in  good  hands  for  an  hour. 

There  never  yet  was  a  country  church  or 
school  that  did  not  have  a  problem  in  the  snoring 
contingency.  Men  and  boys  who  have  been  work- 
ing hard  in  the  fields  all  week  cannot  possibly  keep 
awake  while  sitting  still  in  church  or  school,  espe- 
cially if  they  must  listen  to  the  dull  droning  of 
some  monotonous  voice.  The  only  way  to  keep 
these  people  awake  and  so  to  have  some  control 
of  the  musical  part  of  the  school  programme  is 
to  give  them  something  to  do.  Pick  out  your 
habitual  sleepers  for  your  most  active  positions, 
such  as  librarian,  assistant,  secretary  or  treas- 
urer. I  think  I  would  also  have  some  official  ap- 
pointed whose  business  it  would  be  to  keep  an 
eye  on  the  teams  in  the  shed  or  at  the  rail. 

MENTAL  CONDITIONS 

Now,  as  to  the  mental  conditions  which  consti- 
tute the  problems  in  the  country  Sunday  school. 
The  very  neighbourliness  which  is  an  advantage 
becomes  also  a  serious  disadvantage.  Sometimes 
you  get  to  know  everybody  just  a  little  too  well, 
and  so  the  lesson  seems  to  have  a  direct  and  in- 
tentionally personal  application.  The  folks  get 
to  wearing  their  social  nerves  on  the  outside.  So- 
cial conversation,  which  ought  to  encourage  and 
enlighten,  drifts  into  petty  gossip  and  trivialities. 
The  subjects  of  talk  are  liable  to  be  confined  to 

196 


THE  RURAL  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

Jim  Blake's  sorrow  or  Nancy  Brown's  dress, 
or  Mrs.  Smith's  cake  recipe,  or  how  she  felt  when 
she  heard  what  Mrs.  Jones  said  about  her  peonies. 
Why  do  they  not  discuss  the  lesson?  Sometimes 
they  do,  and  often  the  result  is  more  unfortunate 
than  if  they  had  discussed  crops  and  kittens,  for 
they  fall  into  arguments  on  dogma  which  eng'en- 
ders  strife.  This  is  especially  a  source  of  diffi- 
culty in  schools  that  meet  in  the  schoolhouse  and 
which  are  practically  union  schools.  Is  not  the 
reason  that  the  mind  goes  at  once  to  personal 
trivialities  or  theological  dogma  the  fact  that  the 
teaching  of  the  lesson  and  the  application  made 
by  the  teacher  have  no  immediate  contact  with  the 
lives  and  interests  of  those  who  are  taught  in  the 
country  Sunday  school? 

So  many  of  the  lesson  helps  seem  to  be  pre- 
pared in  the  brick-and-mortar  environment,  so 
few  breathe  the  country  air,  and  seldom,  if  ever, 
one  finds  a  direct  allusion  to  the  problems  and 
needs  and  interests  of  the  boys  and  girls,  men 
and  women  who  pass  their  lives  in  the  fields  and 
on  the  farms.  So  long  as  teaching  is  only  his- 
torical or  theological,  dealing  ony  with  Jews 
who  have  been  dead  a  thousand  years  or  more,  or 
with  problems  that  none  of  us  will  settle  in  the 
next  thousand  years,  the  people  in  the  Sunday 
school  classes  are  going  to  shut  the  doors  of  their 
minds  on  such  subjects,  if  indeed  they  are  ever 
open  to  them,  the  moment  the  bell  rings  for  class 
study  to  cease. 

197 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

KUEAL   LIFE   LESSONS 

We  onglit  to  lielp  tlie  teachers  in  the  country 
Sunday  schools  to  interpret  their  lessons  in  terms 
of  the  lives  of  those  whom  they  are  teaching,  find 
the  point  of  contact  and  immediate  interests  be- 
tween the  lesson  and  the  learner  in  the  country 
and  to  make  religious  truths  so  real  and  vital  that 
a  man  shall  think  about  his  lesson  as  it  relates 
itself  to  the  milking  of  the  cows,  the  harvesting 
of  his  crops,  the  cutting  of  his  timber  or  what- 
ever the  daily  toil  may  be,  and  in  all  his  relations 
with  his  fellow-men  so  that  the  mind  of  the  pupils 
shall  not  be  able  to  shake  off  that  lesson  or  to 
think  about  other  things  at  the  school.  Those 
who  prepare  lesson  helps  have  a  duty  toward  the 
country  school.  And  the  little  assembly  of  a  dozen 
or  forty  people  ought  to  be  in  the  mind  of  the 
editor  as  constantly  as  the  great  city  school. 

As  to  the  theological  cranks  in  the  country 
Sunday  school,  one  seems  to  find  them  more  fre- 
quently there  than  elsewhere.  "Why  not  put  them 
all  together  in  any  school,  even  though  there  are 
only  two  or  three  of  them,  and  organize  what  to 
yourself  quietly  you  know  as  the  cranks'  class? 
You  may  be  sure  that  it  will  have  interesting 
gatherings. 

SOCIALIZING   THE   SCHOOL 

Third,  Some  suggestions  for  the  country  Sun- 
day school. 

Extend  your  work  back  at  least  into  Saturday 

198 


THE  EUEAL  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

night.  Great  good  has  been  done  by  opening  the 
church  or  schoolhouse  every  Saturday  night  for 
some  sort  of  community  gathering  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Sunday  school.  In  any  case 
strengthen  constantly  the  social  life  of  the  school. 
In  the  rural  community  the  church  still  has  the 
opportunity  of  holding  the  dominant  position  so- 
cially, of  becoming  the  most  potent  social  force, 
the  very  center  of  the  lives  of  its  people,  for  upon 
it  the  people  depend  for  their  lectures,  entertain- 
ments, suppers.  The  country  Sunday  school 
needs  picnics  as  much  as  the  city  school,  but  of 
the  opposite  kind ;  as  for  instance,  when  the  coun- 
try school  goes  as  a  whole  to  the  city,  in  the  win- 
ter, to  see  some  celebrated  lecturer  or  to  attend 
some  fitting  entertainment  or  to  visit  the  museum 
or  some  institution.  In  instances  where  teachers 
are  widely  scattered  it  is  not  impossible  to  main- 
tain a  training  class  by  means  of  telephonic  con- 
nection, the  leader  calling  up  each  of  the  mem- 
bers and  reminding  them  of  the  lesson,  asking 
them  if  they  are  on  that  evening  studying  their 
lesson,  receiving  their  inquiries  and  questions  re- 
garding the  difficulties  or  problems  and  also  ask- 
ing them  questions  and  testing  their  understand- 
ing of  the  lesson.  "Whenever  I  hear  of  the  inertia 
and  dead  condition  of  the  country  school  I  nearly 
always  find  that  it  is  in  a  community  where  there 
has  been  no  stimulating  influence  for  a  long  while, 
where  no  institutes  or  conferences  have  been  held, 
while  the  live,  progressive  schools  in  the  country 

199 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

are  those  which  have  had  such  opportunities  and 
have  sent  their  teachers  to  such  gatherings  and 
other  places.  If  you  have  a  dead  school  in  the 
country,  plan  an  institute  or  conference  and  get 
some  live  wires  mixed  in  with  the  people,  and  to 
keep  the  good  work  going,  if  you  cannot  induce 
the  school  to  do  so,  you  will  find  it  worth  while 
yourself  to  buy  one  or  two  of  the  best  and  bright- 
est books  on  teaching  and  Sunday  school  organi- 
zation, and  get  your  teachers  to  read  and  talk 
about  them. 

I  do  not  see  why  the  rural  schools  of  the 
country,  say,  should  not  do  in  that  county  what 
is  being  done  in  the  Eeligious  Education  Associa- 
tion for  the  whole  country.  Why  should  not  the 
schools  of  a  county,  in  cooperation  with  those  of 
the  city,  as  its  center,  secure  a  place  in  the  city 
as  Sunday  school  headquarters,  where  the  teach- 
ers and  officers,  when  they  happen  to  drive  into 
town,  could  go  and  be  sure  of  finding  a  place  quiet 
and  restful  in  which  they  might  study  and  read, 
and  where  they  would  have  at  hand  the  best  ref- 
erence books  on  their  lessons,  and  books  and 
papers  calculated  to  help  them  in  their  work? 

I  can  see  yet  those  country  Sunday  schools, 
a  dozen  to  twenty  children  and  about  as  many 
adults;  eager,  alert  faces  turned  up  to  teachers; 
men  and  women,  of  hands  horny  with  toil,  and 
hearts  ready  for  sacrifice,  if  only  these  lives  may 
be  helped.  You  can  do  little  in  grading  such  a 
school;  you  must  suffer  many  educational  make- 

200 


THE  RURAL  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

shifts;  but  you  cannot  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that 
here  is  the  place  where  the  life  may  come  closest 
to  lives;  and  here  is  the  place,  too,  where  the 
greater  number  of  our  people,  whether  to-day  in 
city  or  country,  receive  the  most  lasting  religious 
impressions. 


201 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

THE  RURAL  SCHOOL  AND  ITS  COMMUNITY 

The  school  in  the  country  is  a  part  of  the  life  of 
the  church  in  the  country.  It  must  fail  if  we  think 
of  it  only  as  a  weekly  meeting  for  class  instruc- 
tion. It  must  fit  itself  into  the  whole  programme 
of  the  church  and  find  itself  in  service  for  all  the 
community.  Its  officers  and  teachers  must  become 
acquainted  with  the  new  study  of  and  the  new 
programme  for  rural  and  country  life. 

The  country  church,  made  familiar  to  us  by 
some  of  the  best  in  English  literature,  was  so 
human  an  institution  because  it  was  so  intensely 
interested  in  the  welfare  of  the  persons  in  its 
community.  The  American  village  church  always 
has  been  a  ministering  institution.  A  large  meas- 
ure of  its  activities  have  been  directed  to  the  care 
of  the  sick,  provision  for  the  needy,  and  relief  of 
the  distressed.  Goldsmith's  parson,  *' passing  rich 
on  forty  pounds  a  year, ' '  never  turning  a  beggar 
from  the  door;  Trollope's  parson's  wife,  who 
spends  her  days  in  piecing  out  flannel  petticoats 
for  villages,  and  the  Ladies'  Aid  Society  of  the 
American  church,  with  its  quiltings  and  its  buzzing 
sewing  machines,  all  belong  to  the  same  great 

202 


EUEAL  SCHOOL  AND  ITS  COMMUNITY 

dynamic  of  human  regard  for  the  welfare  of 
others.  They  are  united  in  love  though  divided 
in  time  and  creeds.  But,  somehow,  in  these  later 
days  the  Aid  Society  has  passed  out  of  existence, 
the  parson's  wife  no  longer  wins  awesome  obei- 
sance as  the  potential  petticoat  distributor,  and 
the  church  is  by  no  means  the  sole  agency  for  the 
relief  of  distress.  It  is  no  longer  the  dominant 
factor  in  the  determination  of  community  welfare. 
"Welfare  work  is  organized ;  it  becomes  a  science, 
and  demands  more  than  a  programme  of  flannel 
petticoats  and  a  course  in  parochial  soup.  The 
churches  do  not  realize  this  yet  and  so  they  have 
lost  their  job  just  there.  In  the  cities  boards  of 
charity,  relief,  and  philanthropy,  together  with 
purely  civic  organizations,  carry  on  this  work. 
In  the  rural  districts  it  is  almost,  wholly  neglected 
for  the  church,  the  simple  and  often  sole  general 
social  unit  in  the  country,  has  not  realized  a 
responsibility  for  social  well-being.  "While  the 
churches  have  generally  been  losing  their  sense 
of  social  responsibility,  the  rural  communities 
have  been  undergoing  social  disintegration.  The 
rural  church  is,  in  many  parts  of  the  coimtry,  not 
nearly  the  closely  unified  social  force  which  once 
it  was. 

COMMUNITY  MISSION 

Yet  the  church  even  in  the  country  can  no 
more  escape  undertaking  a  community  mission 
than  it  can  escape  the  spiritual  imperative  for 
community  betterment.    This  is  so,  first,  because 

203 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

every  church  is  a  coramnnity  organization.  Ee^ 
gardless  of  ecclesiastical  theories,  the  fact  re- 
mains that  every  church  is  the  communal  group- 
ing of  kindred  spirits  seeking  common  aims, 
bound  by  common  ideals  and  sympathies.  So 
soon  as  the  spirit  of  this  age,  which  thinks  of 
welfare,  not  in  terms  of  individualism,  but  in 
terms  of  society,  penetrates  the  church  and  is 
accepted  by  its  leaders  this  organization  will 
throw  its  united  social  force  into  the  realization 
of  community  betterment.  The  country  church 
will  come  to  realize  its  social  responsibility,  to 
see  that  it  has  a  primary  task  of  securing  right 
physical  and  moral  conditions  in  the  rural  dis- 
tricts, and  that  it  has  a  deeper  concern  in  hygiene, 
sanitation,  and  recreation  than  it  has  in  platting 
prospective  subdivisions  in  another  world. 

The  church  is  responsible  for  community  wel- 
fare also  because  the  community,  in  all  its  aspects, 
is  the  soil  in  which  its  great  product  must  grow. 
The  business  of  the  church  is  to  grow  men  and 
women,  to  develop  lives  according  to  certain 
ideals,  to  stimulate,  direct,  and  determine  human 
character.  This  is  its  fruitage.  But  character 
grows  in  the  soil  of  human  conditions.  What 
we  are  depends  not  on  what  people  pray  we  may 
be,  but  on  what  we  are  set  into,  on  our  physical, 
social,  moral  environment.  Just  as  men  do  not 
grow  grapes  on  thorns  so  neither  do  they  grow 
water  lilies  on  asphalt  nor  corn  in  a  swamp.  The 
soil  as  well  as  the  seed  determines  the  product. 

204 


RUEAL  SCHOOL  AND  ITS  COMMUNITY 

If  the  church  is  honestly  interested  in  the  product 
of  human  character,  her  first  concern  will  be  for 
the  soil  in  which  it  is  set. 

^Vhen  a  church  turns  her  attention  to  clean 
streets,  to  healthy  homes,  to  recreation  centres,  to 
means  of  social  accretion  and  integration,  she  is 
not  forsaking  her  divine  mission ;  she  is  cultivat- 
ing heavenly  character  by  appropriate  means. 

BURAIi  WORK   FOR   COMMUNITY   WELFARE 

What  can  a  rural  church  do  for  community 
welfare? 

Such  a  church  can,  first,  come  to  an  intelli- 
gent understanding  of  community  conditions, 
needs,  and  possibilities.  A  chart  of  a  rural  com- 
munity, showing  the  homes,  churches,  schools, 
places  of  communal  gathering,  locations  of  agen- 
cies for  good  and  for  ill,  would  prove  as  striking 
as  such  charts  have  been  for  city  wards.  The 
church  may  set  its  young  men  to  gather  the 
facts  and  prepare  such  a  chart. 

Next,  it  has  often  the  plant  with  which  to 
begin  social-centre  operations.  The  great  need 
of  our  present  rural  life  is  better  fusing.  The 
lines  of  racial  differences  and  the  preoccupations 
of  intensified  business  have  put  an  end  to  social 
visiting.  We  do  not  know  one  another.  The 
church  service  should  be  strengthened  again  at 
the  point  of  opportunity  for  social  acquaintance. 
Then,  the  church  building  should  be  used  for  such 
attractions  as  will  bring  the  community  together 

205 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

for  recreation  and  for  self -improvement.  A  rural 
community  needs  band  concerts,  lectures,  concerts, 
a  library,  and  suitable  recreation  just  as  truly 
as  a  city  community.  Wliy  should  not  the  local 
church  undertake  these  things?  They  have  been 
carried  on  successfully  in  many  instances.  They 
afford  an  opportunity  not  only  for  the  church  to 
minister,  but  for  all  the  people  to  find  opportuni- 
ties for  service,  for  each  to  find  his  own  ministry 
to  all.  Many  a  youth  who  would  otherwise  go 
to  the  dogs  will  find  himself  at  his  best  when  he 
has  a  chance  to  work  at  a  playground  or  at  the 
library  activities  in  the  church.  We  can  easily 
revive  certain  now  obsolete  activities  for  the  rural 
church,  obsolete  only  because  they  failed  to  make 
necessary  readjustments.  They  are:  philan- 
thropic service,  once  accomplished  by  the  parson, 
now  to  be  accomplished  by  systematic,  directed 
study  of  community  needs  by  groups  of  capable 
persons ;  library  work,  once  by  the  sad  old  Sunday 
school  library,  now  by  co-operation  with  library 
centres  for  the  distribution  of  all  good  literature 
through  the  week;  the  reading  room,  once  at- 
tempted as  a  bait  to  church  affiliation,  now  to  be- 
come the  social  centre  for  the  community,  the 
place  where  men  worship  God  by  getting  to  know 
one  another  better,  as  one  said  long  ago,  by  lov- 
ing one  another;  the  playing  ground,  once  found 
in  many  church-yards,  the  place  where  the  old  sat 
under  the  trees,  looked  over  the  graves  of  the 
dead  and  gossiped  over  the  living,  while  the  chil- 

206 


KUEAL  SCHOOL  AND  ITS  COMMUNITY 

dren  played  on  the  green,  now  easily  possible  to 
many  a  country  chnrch  with  its  adjacent  acres  of 
field  and  farm.  Why  should  not  the  ball-ground 
be  next  the  church  ?  The  problem  of  Sunday  ball 
would  then  solve  itself.  The  church  has  lost  con- 
trol, moral  control,  of  many  things  because  she 
has  heedlessly  and  often  selfishly  divorced  her- 
self from  them. 

Where  there  are  several  rural  churches  co- 
operation becomes  imperative.  The  Young  Men^s 
Christian  Association  forms  an  efficient  and  ready 
agency  through  which  the  local  churches  may 
carry  on  their  physical  welfare  work  and  their 
social  service  for  young  men.  But  we  need  a 
like  agency  for  girls  and  young  women.  Their 
lives  are  sadly  barren  of  helpful  interests.  The 
churches  must  get  together  for  their  good. 

KUEAL   RELIGIOUS   TRAINING 

Last,  the  prograrome  of  the  church  must  be 
more  effective  in  seeking  to  inspire  and  educate 
men  to  do  things  for  the  community;  she  has 
an  educational  mission.  Her  business  is  rather 
to  cause  things  to  be  done  than  to  do  things. 
She  must  set  before  her  the  ideal  of  a  community 
life  favourable  to  the  development  of  aggressive, 
competent,  righteous  character,  and  she  must 
teach,  train,  inspire  her  people  to  the  building  of 
such  a  community.  The  mission  and  opportunity 
of  preaching  in  shaping  ideals  and  determining 
action  is  clear ;  the  need  is  that  the  preacher  shall 

207 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

be  quite  clear  as  to  community  ideals  and  their 
importance.  The  greater  need,  however,  is  that 
of  specific,  organized  instruction  of  the  people 
through  classes  and  courses  of  study..  We  need 
courses  of  study  in  home-making,  parenthood  and 
domestic  welfare  as  concerning  the  institution  in 
which  character  is  most  determined;  courses  in 
civics,  in  social  religion,  studies  of  community  ex- 
periences and  services  to  acquaint  people  with 
progress  in  other  places;  courses,  in  a  word,  to 
teach  character  development  through  the  ma- 
chinery and  forces  of  the  community.  The  Sun- 
day school  is  one  great  opportunity  for  this. 
There  ought  to  come  a  time  in  the  life  of  youth 
when  the  literary  study  of  the  Bible  can  turn  to 
practical  application  in  this  direction,  when  he 
ought  to  give  ancient  heroes  and  saints  a  rest 
and  fix  his  eyes  on  the  place  and  conditions  in 
which  he  and  others  must  work  out  heroism  and 
sane  sanctity.  But  the  Sunday  school  must  be 
and  may  be  advantageously  supplemented,  espe- 
cially in  the  rural  church,  by  study  groups  and 
by  class  meeting  in  week  evenings.  Brotherhoods, 
young  people's  societies,  clubs,  and  like  organiza- 
tions will  follow  well-arranged  programmes  of 
study  provided  they  are  sufficiently  elementary, 
evidently  practical,  and  led  by  persons  willing 
to  learn.  Such  courses  are  already  prepared; 
churches  are  using  them,  and  the  chances  are  that 
before  long  the  country  dweller  will  understand 
his  life  and  deal  with  it  more  scientifically  than 

208 


RURAL  SCHOOL  AND  ITS  COMMUNITY 

will  any  other.  He  will  deal  with  it  effectively 
when  he  takes  it  as  a  means  and  opportunity  for 
the  development  of  fullness  of  personality  and 
competency  of  character. 

A  NEW  POLICY 

What  changes  are  needed  in  the  rural  church 
to  meet  community  needs  in  view  of  the  aim  of 
the  church? 

1.  Acknowledge  the  justice  of  the  social  de- 
mand that  the  church  shall  justify  the  investment 
made  in  her  institutions  by  an  adequate  personal 
and  social  product. 

2.  Understand  her  community  by  ascertaining, 
tabulating,  and  exhibiting  the  facts. 

3.  Know  what  is  being  done  in  other  places. 

4.  Provide  especially  trained  leaders  fitted  for 
rural  activities. 

5.  Use  their  existing  plants  to  full  capacity, 
every  day,  both  buildings  and  grounds. 

6.  Lead  in  meeting  the  recreation  needs  of  all, 
children,  youth,  and  age.  Play  is  the  spirit  in  free 
activity. 

7.  Train  and  lead  her  own  people  in  the  privi- 
lege of  service  in  the  comrnunity. 

8.  Federate  all  the  spiritual  forces,  as  schools 
and  other  ideal  agencies  and  use  such  clearing- 
house and  nucleating  agencies  as  the  county 
Y.  M.  C.  A. 

9.  Be  sufficiently  loyal  to  our  professions  to 
sink  sectarian  differences  for  the  sake  of  reli- 

^*  209 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

gion,  eliminate  superfluous  religious  organiza- 
tions and  establish  in  many  communities  ^  town- 
ship churches,"  making  one  strong  and  efficient 
in  place  of  many  weak,  quarreling  and  helpless. 

THE    GOAL 

The  most  important  relation  of  the  rural 
church  to  community  welfare  will  be  an  educa- 
tional one.  Our  interest  and  activity  in  doing 
things  must  never  be  allowed  to  eclipse  the  greater 
duty  of  the  church  as  an  inspirational  agency. 
It  is  a  good  thing  to  organize  the  men  of  the 
church  into  a  road-scraping  brigade,  but  it  is  a 
greater  thing  by  far  to  carry  out  a  programme  of 
so  systematically  inspiring  those  men  with  the 
ideals  of  the  rightly  adjusted  community,  and 
training  them  in  the  method  of  its  life,  that  they 
will  never  be  contented  with  anything  less  than 
the  realization  of  the  ideal.  The  direct  service 
of  a  church  in  community  welfare  justifies  itself 
only  as  an  essential  part  of  the  educational  pro- 
gramme of  that  church.  Primarily  and  ultimately, 
the  ideal  community  depends  upon  ideal  char- 
acter, and  ideal  character  comes  about  through 
inspiration,  leadership,  nurture,  and  service  under 
conditions  that  foster  personal  growth.  In  all  our 
thinking  about  community  welfare  we  must  often 
look  beyond  mechanism  to  the  product,  and  be- 
yond the  physical  conditions  which  determine  life 
to  life  itself.  Nor  must  we  make  the  fatal  error 
of  confounding  means  with  end,  of  urging  people 

210 


EURAL  SCHOOL  AND  ITS  COMMUNITY 

for  clean  streets,  for  libraries,  playgrounds,  and 
aesthetic  pleasures.  But  the  church  must  take  her 
place  of  leadership  in  developing  all  these  agen- 
cies to  their  highest  efficiency  and  applying  them- 
selves with  the  greatest  economy  to  the  product 
of  the  better,  saner,  and  finer  life. 


211 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

THE  CITY  SCHOOL  AND  THE  EURAL  SCHOOL 

In  all  the  discussions  of  the  rural  life  problem  in 
the  past  few  years  one  simple  suggestion  seems 
to  be  missing.  It  is  a  suggestion  based,  however, 
on  a  fundamental  law  of  religion  and  of  daily 
affairs.  Men  tell  how  we  must  enrich  the  country 
life  by  making  it  more  attractive,  how  we  must 
have  closer  unity  amongst  country  churches  and 
schools.  Many  of  those  who  come  with  this  sage 
advice  are  from  city  churches  and  schools.  That 
does  not  disqualify  them  to  speak,  however,  for 
they  have  back  of  their  words  the  memories  and 
experiences  of  earlier  life  in  the  rural  district. 
But  the  attitude  of  the  city  to  country  is  a 
strange  one,  at  least  it  is  strange  if  it  is  taken 
on  an  avowedly  religious  basis.  It  really  seems 
to  be  an  attitude  of  saying,  ^^Well,  you  people  of 
the  country,  when  it  comes  to  Sunday  school  work, 
have  n't  very  much  to  work  with ;  but  such  as  it  is, 
you  must  make  the  best  of  it ;  here  are  some  sug- 
gestions on  how  to  make  your  present  equipment 
go  farther  and  how  to  use  your  present  working 
forces  to  greater  advantage. '^ 

Now,  that  attitude  and  that  section  of  sage 
212 


CITY  SCHOOL  AND  EURAL  SCHOOL 

advice  is  very  much  as  though  the  father  in  the 
family  should  come  home  at  the  week's  end  with 
his  wages  and  say;  ^^Well,  I  Ve  worked  hard 
this  week,  and  so  has  mother;  we  will  divide  the 
earnings  between  us.  As  for  the  little  ones,  of 
course  they  are  too  small  to  work;  they  are  weak 
and  have  little,  therefore  they  must  get  along  as 
well  as  they  can  with  what  they  have."  What 
sort  of  a  home  would  that  make?  Yet  the  city 
says  to  the  rural  district,  *^You  have  little  be- 
cause you  are  so  small ;  therefore,  you  must  make 
the  most  of  what  you  have."  It  is  the  satirical 
application  of  the  old  saying,  ^  ^  Unto  him  that  hath 
shall  be  given."  It  is  careless  oblivion  to  the 
great  law,  ^  ^  They  that  are  strong  ought  to  bear  the 
burdens  of  those  that  are  weak."  The  rural 
school  needs  something  besides  advice;  it  needs 
folks  and  it  needs  personal  help. 

THE  BUKDEN  OF  THE  STKONG 

The  best  thing  that  could  come  to  any  school 
anywhere  would  be  to  accept  some  responsibility 
for  another  one  needing  help.  Not  that  there 
would  come  any  accretion  of  grace  from  playing 
the  Lady  Bountiful  and,  with  a  condescending  air, 
sending  your  worn-out  quarterlies,  express  collect, 
to  some  rural  school.  But  that,  even  with  all  the 
burdens  you  are  bearing  in  your  city  school,  you 
should  still  be  able  to  say,  ' '  God  has  wonderfully 
blessed  us  with  opportunities  and  with  some 
means;  we  owe  it  to  others  to  give  of  what  we 

213 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

have."  The  self-giving  school  will  be  the  grow- 
ing school.  To  be  everlasting  pouring  ourselves 
into  ourselves  is  to  choke  ourselves.  Do  not  think 
you  can  express  all  the  self -giving  your  life  needs 
by  occasional  pennies  in  the  missionary  collection. 
A  penny  or  even  a  dollar  dropped  into  a  box  is 
a  misleading,  soul-damaging  way  of  dodging  one 's 
duty.  He  must  be  a  mighty  small  man  who  can 
let  a  dime  be  his  proxy  in  the  working  array  of 
the  kingdom.  If  we  would  have  life  itself  go  out, 
then  we  must  let  something  besides  loose  change 
go  out  of  us.  The  missionary  spirit  is  not  the 
sending  spirit  alone ;  it  is  the  being-sent  spirit.  If 
you  would  grow  in  grace  you  must  be  willing  that 
the  whole  of  yourself,  thought,  feelings,  sympa- 
thies, muscles,  and  mind  shall  go  out  of  personal 
interests  and  into  something  other  than  yourself; 
best  of  all,  into  some  ideal  purpose  from  which 
you  can  hope  for  nothing  again. 

A  DUTY  AS  AN"  OPPORTUNITY 

Such  an  opportunity  of  self-giving  the  rural 
school  offers  to  the  urban  school,  the  chance  for 
its  people  to  give  themselves,  not  by  collections 
nor  by  hand-me-down  apparatus  and  supplies,  but 
by  personal  knowledge,  sympathy,  and  service. 
Every  school  worker  ought  to  come  in  time  to 
know  at  first  hand  something  of  the  whole  field 
of  work,  to  know  with  some  intimacy  something 
besides  his  own  little  corner  of  the  field.  It 
might  work  well  if  the  Sunday  school   officers 

214 


CITY  SCHOOL  AND  EUEAL  SCHOOL 

sliould  study  the  rural  situation  about  their  city, 
invite  in  the  officers  and  pastors  of  the  coun- 
try schools  for  conferences  on  their  work,  visit 
those  schools  and  get  to  know  the  facts  and  the 
needs.  Then,  when  the  situation  was  well  and 
sympathetically  comprehended,  let  these  officers 
invite  volunteers  to  be  set  free  from  service  in 
their  own  school  and  to  go  out  regularly  to  give 
service  in  the  rural  schools.  Let  such  volunteers 
serve  for  definite  periods,  say  six  months,  or  even 
less  in  some  cases,  so  that  some  others  might  suc- 
ceed them,  and  so  all  have  a  chance  to  give  some 
of  themselves  to  it.  The  greater  number  of  such 
schools  meet  either  after  a  morning  service  or 
in  a  schoolhouse  in  the  afternoon.  The  morning 
schools  would  involve  missing  the  service  at 
home,  but  they  would  not  always  mean  hearing 
a  sermon  of  poorer  quality.  They  would  offer 
an  unusual  opportunity  to  know  people  whose  lives 
are  after  all  the  same  as  ours,  to  love  them,  and 
to  find  the  great  joy  of  personal  contact,  of  deep 
friendships  which  the  country  seems  to  foster  so 
much  more  than  does  the  city.  The  afternoon 
school  might  mean  a  dusty  journey  in  the  heat, 
but  it  would  mean  a  chance  to  see  how  earnest 
are  those  people  in  their  little  schoolhouses ;  how 
the  profit  of  their  schools  makes  them  heedless 
of  many  discomforts,  and  how  much  good  may 
be  accomplished  with  very  crude  tools.  The  long 
evening  would  follow  the  school,  and  if  one  be  a 
true  human  being,  not  a  professional  charity  vis- 

215 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

itor,  not  a  peripatetic  urban  warehouse  of  wis- 
dom, but  just  a  friend  who  can  make  friends,  there 
will  come  a  new  joy  in  the  lives  of  these  dwellers 
in  the  wider  spaces.  The  evening  will  often  otf er 
further  opportunities  for  fellowship  and  service 
through  the  gatherings  of  the  young  people. 

The  country  will  have  to  be  evangelized  by  the 
people  who  owe  to  it  the  roots  and  the  enriching 
of  their  lives.  The  men  and  women  who  lead  in 
the  cities,  who  are  foremost  in  the  work  of  the 
churches  there,  need  once  in  awhile  to  look  back 
across  the  years  and  remember  the  dusty  road 
along  which  they  went  to  the  Sunday  school,  tlie 
green  depths  of  the  wayside  woods,  the  tempting 
blackberries,  the  long  sermon,  and  the  welcome 
school  at  its  close.  For  what  we  are  and  because 
of  what  we  have  we  must  share  with  any  whom 
we  may  help.  The  solution  of  the  problem  of 
the  rural  school  lies  not  in  this  or  the  other  method 
which  the  city  may  devise  for  co-operation ;  it  lies 
in  the  free  intermingling  of  the  life  and  love  of 
both  country  and  city  for  mutual  self-giving;  it 
may  be  that  we  who  seem  to-  have  most  to  give 
may  find  that  we  have  most  to  learn,  and  cer- 
tainly it  will  be  that  we  shall  find  life  in  so  far  only 
as  we  follow  love's  law  of  service  and  sacrificial 
self -giving. 


216 


CHAPTEE  XXV 

THE    PRESENT    OPPORTUNITY    IN    TEACHER    TRAINING 

Thinking  back  over  a  good  many  years  of  teacher- 
training  experience — experience  including  classes 
in  my  own  church,  classes  in  other  churches, 
neighbourhood  classes,  advanced  and  elementary 
courses,  enrollments  of  from  five  to  over  one  hun- 
dred— certain  clear-cut  convictions  emerge.  First, 
we  need  to  pick  the  students.  Teacher-training 
is  not  conducting  a  mob  campaign  for  students. 
The  attempt  to  persuade  great  crowds  with  the 
delusion  that  every  one  can  be  a  teacher  and  every 
one  ought  to  prepare  for  teaching  has  weakened 
our  teacher-training  work.  It  has  led  to  com- 
promises; we  have  been  obliged  to  adapt  the 
courses  of  lessons  to  the  needs  of  the  larger 
number  and  so  lost  the  possibility  of  selecting 
courses  solely  with  reference  to  the  fact  that  the 
student  was  to  be  a  Sunday  school  teacher.  It 
is  not  true  that  every  young  person  needs  the 
teacher  ^s  professional  training.  If  we  were  to 
specialize  by  selecting  students  we  could  at  once 
raise  the  standards,  improve  the  quality  of  the 
work,  eliminate  much  elementary  and  a  great  deal 
of  unnecessary  work  and  make  a  decided  advance 
in  this  enterprise. 

217 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

BIBLICAL  PKEEEQUISITES 

The  next  thing  to  work  for,  one  that  we  ought 
to  attempt  right  now,  is  the  general  acceptance 
of  a  standard  of  Sunday  school  work  which  will 
insure  that  every  person  in  the  school  of  high- 
school  age  has  received  at  the  very  least  that 
amount  of  systematic  Biblical  knowledge  which  is 
embraced  in  the  standard  elementary  teacher- 
training  courses.  Every  person  of  an  age  to  enter 
a  teacher-training  class  should  have  passed  this 
Sunday  school  test  of  Biblical  preparation.  The 
present  teacher-training  Bible  study  work  should 
be  a  prerequisite  of  teacher-training.  The  Bible 
drills  are  not,  in  any  proper  sense,  teacher-train- 
ing. They  represent — sometimes — the  knowledge 
which  every  intelligent  Christian  person  should 
have.  The  tendency  of  our  present  practice  in 
teacher-training  is  to  set  apart  even  this  ele- 
mentary Biblical  knowledge  as  though  it  were  a 
thing  required  of  teachers,  but  quite  negligible  by 
all  others.  It  is  not  advanced  learning;  it  is  sadly 
elementary.  If  we  could  secure  such  preparation 
before  entrance  on  teacher-training  classes,  by 
the  assurance  that  our  schools  gave  this  Biblical 
training  and  tested  its  people  in  it,  it  would  won- 
derfully simplify  our  work  with  training  students. 
Instead  of  attempting  to  master  some  four  or  five 
subjects,  they  could  specialize  on  those  that  were 
most  closely  related  to  teaching  and  methods. 
Then  we  would  find  it  easy  to  enlist  really  godly 
professional  teachers  in  such  work. 

218 


OPPORTUNITY  IN  TEACHER  TRAINING 

To  be  able  to  glibly  repeat,  parrot-like,  a  series 
of  elementary  Bible  drills  may  have  for  a  while 
a  fascination  for  feeble  minds,  but  it  can  have 
little  or  no  value  for  a  constructive  personality; 
it  cannot  train  teachers.  The  emphasis  on  these 
often  puerile  drills  limits  the  training  class  to 
persons  of  lesser  mental  calibre  and  lesser  am- 
bitions in  regard  to  service.  It  deludes  them  into 
the  hope  that  mastering  such  drills  will  fit  them 
to  teach;  then  comes  the  sad  awakening,  when 
they  test  out  the  results  of  such  training  courses. 

Following  pedagogical  courses  and  work  in 
psychology,  teachers  in  advanced  training  should 
receive  biblical  work  which  represents  modem 
scholarship.  The  best  plan  is  to  follow  the  in- 
tensive study  of  a  single  book  or  a  special  type 
of  biblical  literature  in  order  to  introduce  the 
student  to  this  method  and  to  establish  right 
habits  of  study.  Teacher-training  must  aim  to 
lead  teachers  to  competency  as  Bible  students. 

MOEE  INTELLIGENT  COUKSES 

Second,  shake  off  the  shackles  of  our  present 
mechanisms,  of  something  like  forty  short  lessons 
of  forty  minutes  each,  every  one  containing  forty 
sentences  in  apt  alliteration.  Get  these  people  to 
think.  If  you  cannot  lead  a  teacher  to  think,  that 
teacher  can  never  lead  another  to  think.  Despite 
all  the  well-laid  plans  of  mechanics  in  this  mat- 
ter, make  up  your  mind  to  give  your  class  a 
chance  to  get  deeper  into  some  of  these  subjects 

219 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

tliaii  tlie  present  scheme  usually  permits.  It  is  a 
fallacy  to  argue  that,  because  people  have  little 
time,  they  must  try  to  compass  a  training  course 
in  some  forty  forty-minute  drilled  recitations. 
That  is  only  to  waste  a  lot  of  their  time.  It  does 
not  train.  The  same  amount  of  time  spent  on 
fewer  subjects,  with  real  earnest  attempts  to  get 
at  basic  principles  and  to  secure  the  young  teach- 
er ^s  understanding  of  their  application  would  set 
us  all  much  farther  along  the  road.  If  you  can 
only  get  in  twelve  lessons  in  a  season,  then  give 
all  the  twelve  to  one  small  group  of  subjects,  such 
as  '^Interest  and  Attention,"  *^ Lesson  Presenta- 
tion;'' or  take  some  really  good  text-book  or 
treatise  on  the  principles  of  religious  education 
in  the  school,  and  let  every  student  master  that. 
Of  course  the  book  should  be  within  reach  of 
their  understanding,  but  not,  as  some  of  our 
teacher-training  text-books  have  been,  beneath 
their  respect.  You  can  depend  on  it  that  when- 
ever a  student  has  been  startled  with  real  in- 
terest in  the  study  of  one  good  book,  that  is  only 
the  beginning;  others  will  follow;  the  habit  has 
been  established.  I  have  seen  this  illustrated 
hundreds  of  times  until  my  faith  has  become  firm 
that  one  of  the  finest  things  you  can  do  for  any- 
one, one  of  the  farthest  reaching,  is  to  get  him 
started  just  once  to  study  a  good  book  of  this 
kind.^ 

We  have  failed  in  several  important  respects 

^  For  suggestions  of  titles  see  the  book  list  in  Chapter  XXVII. 

220 


OPPORTUNITY  IN  TEACHER  TRAINING 

in  our  teacher-training.  Yon  can  see  one  evidence 
in  the  small  number  who  go  on  with  advanced 
work;  they  go  no  further  because  the  first  start 
awakened  in  them  no  appetite  for  more.  A  light- 
ning-express, hop-and-skip  tour  of  the  whole  world 
is  not  the  best  incentive  to  helpful,  cultural  travel. 

BEGININGS  ARE  ONLY  BEGINNINGS 

Again,  cease  to  delude  young  teachers  into 
thinking  that  an  elementary  diploma  is  the  open 
sesame  to  Sunday  school  success.  We  must  in- 
sist that  it  is  not  by  any  means  the  goal,  that  it 
is  only  the  starting  point.  It  is  the  line  that  we 
draw  and  say  that  no  one  ought  to  or  can  enter 
this  race  who  does  not  toe  this  line.  We  do  wrong 
when  we  hand  out  those  diplomas  with  high- 
sounding  encomiums,  as  though  the  recipients  had 
achieved  astounding  educational  heights.  Per- 
haps we  have  stopped  many  who  did  run  well  by 
leading  them  to  assume  that  the  race  was  ended, 
that  they  had  arrived.  We  must  do  everything  in 
our  power  to  make  the  present  elementary  course 
or  any  series  of  elementary  lessons  just  the  be- 
ginning, that  which  shall  give  the  incentive  to  a 
life  of  continued  preparation,  progress,  and  im- 
provement. Only  such  toil  and  development  gives 
satisfaction  in  service.  The  teachers  who  have 
arrived  and  have  no  further  to  go  are  soon  dis- 
contented; they  either  go  back  or  they  back  out. 

Teaching  will  not  lose  its  attractiveness  to 
those  who  ought  to  teach  if  we  mahe^  its  prepara- 

221 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

tory  course  mean  something  dignified^  serious, 
and,  to  a  proper  degree,  even  difficult.  If  we 
are  wise  enough  to  look  forward  we  will  be  gov- 
erned in  our  plans  for  the  training  of  teachers 
by  the  ideal  of  the  school  that  is  coming  to  be 
rather  than  by  the  fact  of  the  school  as  it  has 
been.  This  will  be  especially  worthy  of  consid- 
eration inasmuch  as  we  are  to-day  making  the 
training  of  young  people  of  first  importance,  for 
these  young  people  ought  to  be  teachers  in  the 
school  of  the  next  two  decades;  the  courses  of 
training  ought  to  fit  them  for  the  progress  and 
improvement  the  school  will  see  in  that  period. 

What  does  this  mean  to  the  church,  the  pastor, 
or  the  Sunday  school  worker  anxious  to  secure 
better  trained  teachers?  Does  it  not  mean  simply 
this,  that  we  have  to  put  more  of  ourselves  into 
planning  teacher-training  work?  We  may  well  be 
grateful  for  the  beginnings  that  have  been  made 
in  this  work,  for  the  elementary  courses  that 
have  been  worked  out,  but  we  must  now  go  for- 
ward, must  secure  courses  of  study  suited  to  the 
needs  of  our  teachers,  recognizing  differences  of 
needs  and  providing  for  them.  It  means  that  we 
cannot  do  this  work  on  a  wholesale  plan.  We 
cannot  sit  back  when  some  publisher  gets  out  a 
course,  no  matter  how  well  arranged  it  may  be, 
and  count  that  the  work  is  accomplished.  Every 
teacher  must,  in  no  small  measure,  be  guided  by 
his  own  needs  and  the  needs  of  his  classes.  It 
means,  too,  that,  if  we  would  hold  the  good  we 

222 


OPPORTUNITY  IN  TEACHER  TRAINING 

have  gained  already  in  teacher-training,  we  must 
go  forward  to  better  things ;  we  must  raise  stand- 
ards; we  must  offer  better  courses.  The  best 
things  in  teacher-training  have  not  all  been  done. 
There  is  a  great  chance  for  leadership  here,  a 
great  chance  in  the  local  field,  and  there  is  noth- 
ing that  will  better  repay  self-investment  on  the 
part  of  pastor  or  of  trained  teacher  than  this 
work  of  stimulating  and  guiding  our  teachers  to 
habits  of  study  and  self -development.^ 


•For  explicit  suggestions  on  courses  in  teacher-training  under 
these  ideals  see  the  report  of  the  special  Commission  on  University 
Courses  appointed  by  the  Religious  Education  Association.  The 
report  is  published  gratis. 


223 


CHAPTEE  XXVI 

MAKING  YOUE  EXPEETS  AT  HOME 

The  cliildren  of  light  are  taking  lessons  of  the 
other  people  and  becoming  wise  in  their  day. 
Corporations  conducting  great  manufacturing 
and  mercantile  enterprises  no  longer  expect  any 
one  person  to  master  all  the  details  of  their 
concerns;  they  have  learned  that  in  affairs  of 
magnitude  the  jack-of-all-trades  is  ever  master 
of  none.  The  Sunday  schools  are  realizing  that 
they,  too,  are  engaged  in  affairs  of  magnitude, 
and  that  it  is  too  much  to  expect  that  anyone 
shall  be  familiar  in  a  thorough-going  way  with 
all  the  details  of  a  school.  We  need  experts — that 
is,  those  who  have  concentrated  their  thought  and 
energy  on  some  special  problem  or  some  special 
phase  of  Sunday  school  service — so  -that,  as  prob- 
lems arise,  they  may  meet  them  with  special 
knowledge  of  the  best  ways  of  solving  them. 
There  is  no  need  to  argue  the  advantage  of  ex- 
pert service;  the  difficulty  is  to  get  the  experts. 
The  greater  number  of  workers  would  say,  if 
you  should  suggest  that  their  school  would  be 
better  for  the  steady  service  of  experts,  **That 

224 


MAKING  YOUR  EXPERTS  AT  HOME 

is  perhaps  possible  in  large  city  schools,  with  un- 
limited resources;  but  we  have  a  small  school, 
with  hardly  funds  enough  to  get  along.'*  I  wish 
to  suggest  a  method  by  which  any  school,  no  mat- 
ter how  small,  may  have  its  experts. 

If  you  cannot  hire  your  experts,  get  home- 
made ones.  They  may  serve  your  purpose  much 
better.  All  sorts  of  fascinating  associations 
cluster  about  the  phrase,  *^ home-made."  Home- 
made pies  were  never  surpassed.  There  are  ad- 
vantages much  more  attractive  in  home-made 
Sunday-school  experts.  They  will  know  your  sit- 
uation and  your  problems  at  first  hand ;  they  will 
have  heart  as  well  as  brain  in  the  jobs  they  tackle ; 
all  the  growth  they  get  from  service  will  come  to 
the  school  where  they  are;  they  will  be  always 
on  hand,  and,  by  no  means  the  least  consideration, 
they  will  have  to  stay  by  and  see  their  prescrip- 
tions take  effect.  You  know  it  is  an  easy  thing 
to  give  advice  when  you  know  you  will  be  safely 
out  of  the  way  before  the  patient  feels  the  effect 
of  following  your  prescription. 

INDIVIDUAL   SPECIALIZATION" 

Given  a  school  where  the  following  simple 
conditions  are  to  be  found,  the  making  of  your 
own  experts  is  always  possible;  the  conditions 
are:  A  few  people  willing  to  take  pains  and  fol- 
low leadership,  willing  to  use  the  postoffice,  and 
to  apply  a  little  business  sense  to  the  Sunday 
school. 

^'  225 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

Here  are  some  of  tlie  difficulties  on  wMch 
every  school  needs  expert  advice :  Sunday  school 
buildings ;  adaptation  of  present  quarters  to  good 
work;  equipment  for  classes  and  rooms;  rational, 
enduring  methods  of  securing  all  the  scholars 
who  ought  to  be  in  the  schools ;  methods  of  meet- 
ing the  special  needs  of  youth  in  the  critical 
periods,  class  records  and  accounts  that  save  time 
and  labour,  and  are  yet  reliable ;  selection  of  les- 
sons and  lesson  material;  social  life  of  the  school; 
securing  and  training  new  teachers ;  training  offi- 
cers. Thousands  of  schools  all  over  the  world 
have  been  meeting  these  very  problems  for  dec- 
ades; surely  some  have  worked  out  approximate 
solutions.  "We  know  that  a  very  large  number 
of  schools  have  met  with  success  in  dealing  with 
different  items  in  this  list  of  difficulties  and  prob- 
lems. The  principle  reason  so  many  schools  go 
on  blindly  and  alone,  seeking  to  solve  problems 
that  have  been  solved  by  similar  schools  long  ago, 
is  that  no  one  has  stood  up  saying,  *^That  par- 
ticular difficulty  is  my  particular  job  in  this 
school;  I  will  know  all  there  is  to  be  known 
about  it. ' ' 

The  way  to  solve  difficulties  is  not  to  sit  down 
in  a  body  and  gaze  at  them  until  you  are  all  dis- 
couraged; the  better  plan  is  to  let  every  worker 
pick  his  own  foe,  and  fire  away  at  it  until  it  is 
** fired.''  Specialization  is  possible  not  only  for 
the  great  corporation;  it  is  possible  for  the  little 
school. 

226 


MAKING  YOUR  EXPERTS  AT  HOME 

A  TYPICAl,   PLAN 

Suppose,  to  come  well  witliin  the  mark,  we 
have  a  school  in  which  the  teachers  and  ofhcers 
number  only  ten,  all  told.  Let  them  get  together 
some  night  and,  after  a  conference  on  what  is 
being  done  in  the  Sunday  school  world  and  what 
their  school  might  do,  let  them  decide  on  the  prob- 
lems or  difficulties  which  ought  to  be  tackled  first 
in  their  school.  Suppose  they  pick  out  eight  or 
ten,  or  it  might  be  better  to  start  with  only  four 
or  five.  The  first  is,  we  will  say,  the  matter  of 
making  the  best  use  possible  of  a  church  building 
or  other  room  which  was  not  designed  for  school 
purposes;  some  schools  would  be  at  the  point 
where  they  could  take  up  the  matter  of  a  sep- 
arate building.  Then  the  superintendent  would 
say:  *^Mr.  Thompson,  you  know  something  about 
buildings  and  that  sort  of  thing;  will  you  just 
make  it  your  business  to  get  all  the  information 
you  can  on  how  other  schools  do,  on  the  use  of 
screens  between  classes,  folding  doors,  dividing 
blackboards  and  curtains  1  "Write  around  and  get 
any  plans  you  can.  See  if  you  can  get  any  help 
or  advice  for  us.  If  you'll  do  this,  we  won't  lay 
any  other  job  on  you,  outside  of  teaching.'' 

^^But,  Mr.  Superintendent,"  says  Thompson, 
** where '11  I  write  to;  I  don't  know  where  to  look 
for  information." 

*^Look  through  the  Sunday  school  papers, 
back  numbers  and  all.  Write  to  the  International 
Sunday   School   Association,   and   to   The   Reli- 

227 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

gious  Education  Association  which  maintains  a 
Bureau  of  Information  in  Chicago;  they  will  tell 
you  where  to  find  further  information." 

Before  Thompson  has  been  on  that  job  very 
long  he  will  be  an  enthusiast  on  the  subject;  he 
will  thoroughly  enjoy  his  job,  and  he  will  inspire 
others  with  interest  and  enthusiasm.  He  will 
start  wheels  turning  because  he  will  become  a 
crank — the  very  best  kind  of  a  crank,  one  cre- 
ated by  special  knowledge.  He  will  write  for  in- 
formation ;  he  will  learn  soon  of  schools  that  have 
been  working  on  this  matter  for  a  long  while, 
and  he  will  wonder  how  it  happened  that  their 
school  sat  and  sighed  over  difficulties  that  were 
being  solved  all  about  them.  That  school,  how- 
ever, will  have  by  that  time  one  good  home-made 
expert. 

DEVELOPING  AUTHOKITIES 

What  happened  to  Thompson  will  happen  to 
others,  only  it  will  not  happen ;  it  will  be  brought 
about  by  wise  direction.  The  superintendent,  be- 
fore the  meeting  mentioned  above,  will  have 
thought  over  the  special  aptitudes  and  interests 
of  his  other  workers.  He  sees  that  Miss  Allen  is 
especially  adapted  to  study  the  teacher-recruiting 
and  training  problem,  and  he  gives  her  a  start  in 
that  direction.  He  sees  that  Mr.  Johnson  is  just 
the  man,  with  vital  force  and  executive  ability, 
to  study  the  matter  of  enlisting  scholars,  and  he 
gives  him  a  task  in  which  he  will  take  delight. 

228 


MAKING  YOUR  EXPERTS  AT  HOME 

These  individuals,  as  many  as  are  available, 
needed  and  willing,  by  correspondence,  collecting 
facts  and  literature,  stud^dng  the  same  and  ar- 
ranging the  material  collected  both  for  reference 
and  for  the  enlightenment  of  others,  soon  pre- 
pare themselves  to  shed  concentrated  and  focal- 
ized light  on  problems  one  at  a  time.  Each  be- 
comes, in  time,  the  authority  on  a  special  subject; 
they  have  the  literature  and  material  collected  at 
hand.  The  task  becomes  a  fascinating  one  to 
them.  If  there  is  a  pleasure  of  collecting  pictures 
of  dogs,  or  piling  up  postal  cards,  why  should 
there  be  less  pleasure  in  collecting  pictures  and 
gathering  facts  about  Sunday  school  classes, 
buildings,  lessons,  methods,  record-cards? 

The  way  to  make  experts,  then,  is  to  cease 
thinking  of  all  the  business  of  the  school  as  every- 
body's business,  to  agree  on  a  separation  of  tasks 
among  the  teachers,  officers  and  any  others  who 
will  work  at  them — ^for  there  are  many  who 
would  come  into  school  service  under  this  plan — 
and  to  hold  each  one  responsible  for  knowledge 
of  his  own  special  focal  point. 


229 


CHAPTEE  XXVn 

THE  teacher's  TOOL-CHEST 

It  is  a  good  deal  easier  to  draw  instructive  and 
warning  lessons  from  the  oppressive  Egyptians 
than  it  is  to  avoid  their  errors.  Many  a  modern 
church  is  demanding  that  its  servants  shall  make 
bricks  without  straw;  even  worse  than  that,  they 
are  expected  to  do  the  most  delicate  work  in  the 
world  without  any  kind  of  tools  or  technical  aids 
unless  they  will  provide  them  for  themselves. 
Sunday  school  teachers  are  often  supposed  to 
have  acquired  grace  sufficient  to  submit  to  any 
degree  of  criticism  while  never  allowing  them- 
selves to  expect  any  least  degree  of  assistance. 
Sometimes  we  say  that  the  Sunday  school 
teacher  is  the  heart  and  secret  of  the  Sunday 
school  problem.  But  we  have  to  cut  deeper.  Back 
of  teacher  is  the  church,  the  responsible  organi- 
zation. The  teacher  problem  is  up  to  the  church ; 
if  ever  teacher-training  shall  be  universal,  it  will 
be  not  only  because  the  teachers  feel  their  defi- 
ciencies, but  also  because  the  church  sincerely  en- 
deavours to  meet  their  need  of  training  and  in- 
sists on  its  right  to  the  very  best  service  that  can 
be  rendered. 

230 


THE  TEACHER'S  TOOL-CHEST 

Now,  when  a  church  says  to  a  man  or  a  woman, 
Come  and  do  this  piece  of  work,  it  ought,  at  least, 
also  to  say.  Since  you  are  to  receive  no  salary, 
we  will  see  to  it  that  the  proper  tools  are  fur- 
nished for  this  work,  and  that  you  have  any  aid 
you  need  toward  working  efficiency.  In  other 
words,  it  is  the  business  of  the  church  to  furnish 
its  teachers  with  good  working  reference  libraries. 
To  do  so  would  be  to  take  a  long  step  toward  ade- 
quate teacher-training  and  to  ensure  the  continu- 
ous growth  and  improvement  of  the  powers  of  the 
teaching  staff. 

WHAT    THE    CHURCH    MAY    DO 

The  teacher's  tool-chest,  the  working  reference 
library,  ought  to  be  placed  either  in  the  church 
or,  as  might  be  practicable  and  decidedly  advan- 
tageous in  many  smaller  communities,  in  the  pub- 
lic librar^^;  at  any  rate,  it  should  be  in  the  place 
where  it  can  be  most  easily  reached  and  readily 
used  by  the  largest  number  of  teachers.  It  is 
worth  while  to  note  that  the  plan  of  placing  such 
a  collection  of  books  in  a  public  library  is  not 
evolved  out  of  the  whole  cloth,  but  has  been  in 
practical  operation  for  a  number  of  years  in  sev- 
eral places.  And,  what  is  more,  library  boards 
gladly  purchase  the  books.  This  is  in  accord  with 
the  principle  of  meeting  the  needs  of  any  im- 
portant part  of  the  library's  constituency.  Wher- 
ever the  collection  of  books  may  be,  it  should  be 
by  itself.     This  does  not  mean  in  a  glass  case, 

231 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

with  the  key  in  the  superintendent's  pocket  or 
at  the  janitor's  honse,  but  so  set  off  that  it  may 
have  at  hand  a  study  table  or  tables,  where  those 
who  use  the  library  may  do  their  work. 

One  school  set  the  library  in  a  classroom  and 
had  that  room  opened,  warmed  and  ready  two 
nights  of  the  week,  before  prayer-meeting  and  be- 
fore teachers '  meeting.  Needless  to  say,  the  books 
were  used. 

It  would  be  a  capital  plan  in  such  schools  as 
were  able  to  compass  it  to  have  one  of  the  class- 
rooms known  during  the  week  as  the  ^^faculty 
room,''  where  not  the  library  only,  but  all  maps, 
charts,  special  teaching  apparatus  and  the  teach- 
ers' records  could  be  kept  and  be  accessible  to  the 
faculty.  But  the  real  advantages  of  the  teacher's 
tool-chest  need  not  wait  for  such  elaborate  facili- 
ties; they  are  possible  even  if  you  have  to  keep 
your  collection  of  tools  in  a  comer  in  some  hos- 
pitable home. 

THE  WAY  TO  BEGIN  IS  TO  BEGIN 

But  I  hear  one  saying,  *^This  is  all  very  well 
for  schools  that  have  plenty  of  money  to  use  on 
special  libraries."  To  tell  you  the  truth,  there 
are  as  yet  really  no  schools  with  plenty  of  money 
to  spend;  all  have  to  use  their  little  to  the  best 
advantage.  If  a  school  has  such  a  library  it  is 
because  it  knows  that  the  library  pays  and  it 
could  not  do  business  without  it.  It  is  a  money- 
saving  proposition  because  it  is  an  efficiency-in- 

232 


THE  TEACHER'S  TOOL-CHEST 

creasing  device.  But  what  if  you  simply  haven't 
the  funds  for  it!  Then  begin  without  them,  and 
get  some  one  to  give  the  book  you  need  most  of 
all.  Put  this  matter  before  a  lawyer,  the  pastor 
or  anyone  who  knows  the  value  of  books  as  tools, 
and  see  if,  after  all,  you  have  any  real  difficulty 
in  starting  your  tool-chest.  You  may  have  to 
start  with  one  book;  but  it  never  has  happened 
yet  that  one  used  book  stood  alone  very  long. 

What  tools  ought  to  be  in  the  chest!  Here 
one  is  strongly  tempted  to  counsels  of  perfection. 
You  know  it  is  so  easy  to  set  out  an  elaborate 
list  of  books,  if  only  to  show  how  wide  is  your 
bibliographical  information.  Yet  this  is  true: 
poor  tools  are  worse  than  none  at  all;  the  best 
tools  are  the  cheapest.  Set  out  with  the  ideal 
of  quality  rather  than  quantity.  Decide  what  you 
need  most  of  all  and  get  the  best  of  its  kind.  I 
would  say  for  the  average  school,  first  of  all,  a 
good  Bible  dictionary,  preferably  the  one-volume 
Hastings,  the  best  thing  of  this  kind  in  print  for 
the  Sunday  school  teacher.  Next,  a  good  com- 
mentary; here  again  there  is  a  good  one-volume 
work  available  published  by  the  Macmillan  Com- 
pany at  a  very  low  price.  These  books  on  the 
Bible  are  placed  first  because  this  is  a  reference 
librar}^,  primarily,  rather  than  a  collection  of 
study  books.  If  you  can  do  so  go  a  little  farther, 
at  least  in  the  matter  of  books  on  the  Bible ;  get, 
for  instance,  a  few  books  on  the  making  of  the 
Bible,  Price's  *' Ancestry  of  our  English  Bible, '* 

233 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

Kent's  ^'Origin  and  Permanent  Value  of  the 
Old  Testament''  and  Bennett's  ^'Primer  of  the 
Bible."  Then  books  on  the  Sunday  school,  its 
organization  and  management;  on  child  study, 
psychology;  on  teaching  and  on  the  general  prin- 
ciples of  religious  education.  Get  worth-while 
books,  in  which  the  authors,  having  the  right  to 
speak  with  some  authority,  treat  their  subjects 
thoroughly  and  with  dignity.  Be  sure  to  include 
James's  ** Talks  to  Teachers"  and  Du  Bois's  little 
classic  '* Point  of  Contact."  The  list  is  perhaps 
too  long  to  give  here.  Buy  nothing  because  it  is 
cheap,  but  each  because  it  is  just  a  little  beyond 
you,  enough  to  make  you  reach  out  and  grow  up. 
Then  make  sure  the  library  is  known,  talked 
up ;  make  its  surroundings  attractive ;  use  it  your- 
self; show  beginners  how  to  use  it;  tell  people 
outside  of  it,  and  then  watch  it  grow  by  use. 

A  WORKING  LIBRARY  ON  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 

Here  are  some  of  the  best  tools  for  the  teach- 
er's tool-chest.  The  titles  are  selected  in  view  of 
the  practical  helpfulness  of  the  books  for  teachers. 
Those  marked  with  an  *  may  be  regarded  as  in- 
dispensable ;  they  constitute  the  minimum  require- 
ments for  this  Library.  Those  marked  with  a 
§  should  be  added  next,  and  all  these  books  should 
be  secured. 

The  books  listed  below  constitute  the  titles  to 
be  found  in  The  Traveling  Library  of  the  Eeli- 
gious  Education  Association.    They  represent  an 

234 


THE  TEACHER  ^S  TOOL-CHEST 

attempt  to  select  a  library,  of  not  over  one  hun- 
dred titles,  of  the  best  and  most  practical  works 
in  religious  education  from  the  modem  point  of 
^dew,  including  books  on  principles,  methods  and 
materials. 

BIBLIOGRAPHIES 

Bibliography  on  Bihle  and  Public  Schools.  (Relig.  Educ. 
Assn.,  free.) 

Bibliography  on  Moral  Training  in  the  Public  Schools. 
C'Relig.  Educ,"  Feb.,  1911.) 

Bibliography  on  Graded  Sunday-School  Texts.  (''Relig. 
Educ.,''  Aug.,  1909.     Free  pamphlet.) 

Child-Welfare  Bibliography.    (Chicago  Public  Library.) 

Bibliography  of  Education,  current  issues.  (U.  S.  Bu- 
reau of  Education.) 

Bibliography  of  Child-Study,  current  issues.  (U.  S. 
Bureau  of  Education.) 

PRINCIPLES  OF  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 

*5  Volumes  of  Religious  Education  Association  (Vols.  I, 
III,  IV,  and  V,  $1.00  each;  Vol.  II,  $2.50). 

Christian  Nurture,  Horace  Bushnell.  (Scribners,  $1.25 
net. ) 

Religious  Education;  Hoiv  to  Improve  It,  C.  L.  Draw- 
bridge.    (Longmans,  90c  net;  paper,  50c  net.) 

*Education  in  Religion  and  Morals,  George  A  Coe. 
(Revell,    $1.35.) 

^Principles  of  Religious  Education,  Butler  et  al.  (Long- 
mans, $1.00.) 

The  Development  of  Religion,  Irving  King.  (Macmillan, 
$1.75.) 

Talks  on  Psychology  and  Lifers  Ideals,  William  James. 
(Henrj^  Holt  &  Co.,  $1.50.) 
235 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

Personal  and  Ideal  Elements  in  Education^  Henry  C. 
King.     (Macmillan,  $1.50  net.) 

Moral  Principles  in  Education,  John  Dewey.  (Hough- 
ton Mifflin  Co.,  35c  net.) 

Making  of  Character ,  John  MacCunn.  (Macmillan, 
$1.25  net.) 

Educational  Values,  W.  C.  Bagley.  (Macmillan,  $1.10 
net.) 

The  Principles  of  Religious  Development,  George  Gallo- 
way.    (Macmillan,  $3.00  net.) 

Education  as  Growth,  L.  H.  Jones.  (Ginn  &  Co.,  $1.25.) 

Religious  Freedom  in  American  Education,  Joseph  H. 
Crooker.     (Amer.  Unit.  Assn.,  $1.00  net.) 

Studies  in  Religious  Nurture,  A.  B.  Van  Ormer.  (Lu- 
theran Pub.  Society.) 

*The  Psychology  of  Religion,  E.  D.  Starbuck.  (Scrib- 
ners,   $1.50.) 

The  Psychology  of  Religious  Belief,  J.  B.  Pratt.  (Mac- 
millan, $1.50.) 

The  Psychology  of  Religious  Experience,  Edward  S. 
Ames.     (Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  $2.50  net.) 

*The  Child  and  His  Religion,  George  E.  Dawson.  (U. 
of  C.  Press,  75c.  net.) 

%A  Study  of  Child  Nature,  Elizabeth  Harrison.  (Chi- 
cago Kindergarten  College,  $1.00.) 

^Adolescence,  G.  S.  Hall.  2  vols.  (Appletons,  $7.50 
net.) 

Psychology  of  Childhood,  Frederick  Tracy.  (D.  C. 
Heath  &  Co.,  $1.20  net.) 

Training  of  Parents,  Ernest  H.  Abbott.  (Houghton 
Mifflin  Co.,  $1.00  net.) 

%The  Unfolding  of  Personality,  H.  Thiselton  Mark.  (U. 
of  C.  Press,  $1.00.) 

236 


THE  TEACHER'S  TOOL-CHEST 

Parenthood  and  Race  Culture,  Caleb  W.  Saleeby.  (Mof- 
fat, Yard  &  Co.,  $2.50  net.) 

Child  Problems,  George  B.  Mangold.  (Macmillan,  $1.25 
net.) 

The  Training  of  Infants,  H.  G.  Moore.  (Longmans, 
75c.) 

The  Daivn  of  Character,  Edith  E.  R.  Mumford.  (Long- 
mans, $1.20  net.) 

^Rational  Living,  Henry  C.  King.     (Doran,  50c.) 

Girl  and  Woman,  Caroline  W.  Latimer.  (Appletons, 
$1.50  net.) 

Tip  Through  Childhood,  George  A.  Hubbell.  (Putnams, 
$1.25.) 

%The  Essentials  of  Character,  E.  0.  Sisson.  (Macmillan, 
$1.00  net.) 

Moral  Education,  E.  H.  Griggs.     (Huebsch,  $1.60  net.) 

Education  of  the  Will,  James  Payot.  (Funk  &  Wag- 
inalk  Co.,  $1.50.) 

BIBLE  STUDY 

The  New  Appreciation  of  the  Bible,  W.  C.  Selleck.  (U. 
of  C.  Press,  $1.50  net.) 

Jesus  Christ  and  the  Christian  Character,  F.  G.  Pea- 
body.     (Geo.  H.  Doran  Co.,  50c.) 

Hebrew  Life  and  Thought,  Louise  S.  Houghton.  (U.  of 
C.  Press,  $1.50  net.) 

The  Origin  and  Permanent  Value  of  the  Old  Testament, 
Charles  F.  Kent.     (Scribners,  $1.00  net.) 

The  Great  Teachers  of  Judaism  and  Christianity,  C.  F. 
Kent.     (The  Methodist  Book  Concern,  75c.) 

The  Prophets  as  Statesmen  and  Preachers,  H.  T.  Fowler. 
(Pilgrim  Press,  40c.) 

237 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

THE    CHURCH 

The  Efficient  Layman,  Henry  F.  Cope.     (Amer.  Baptist 

Pub.  Soc,  $1.00  net.) 
§The   Educational   Ideal  in   the   Ministry,  W.   H.   P. 

Faunce.     (Macmillan,  $1.25  net.) 
The  Church  of  Today,  J.  H.  Crooker.      (Amer.  Unit. 

Assn.,  75e.  net.) 
Training  the  Church  of  the  Future,  F.  E.  Clark.     (Funk 

&  WagrnaUs,  75c.) 

THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

*The  Modern  Sunday  School  in  Principle  and  Practice, 

Henry  F.  Cope.     (Revell,  $1.00  net,) 
*The  Graded  Sunday  School  in  Principle  and  Practice, 

H.  H.  Meyer.     (Eaton  &  Mains,  75c.) 
Principles  and  Ideals  for  the  Sunday  School,  Burton  and 

Mathews.     (U.  of  C.  Press,  $1.00  net.) 
The  Making  of  a  Teacher,  M.  G.  Brumbaugh.     (S.  S. 

Times  Co.,  $1.00  net.) 
Elements  of  Religious  Pedagogy,  F.  L.  Pattee.     (Eaton 

&  Mains,  50c.) 
The  Evolution  of  the  Sunday  School,  Henry  F.  Cope. 

(Pilgrim  Press,  75c.) 
*Hand-Work  in  the  Sunday  School,  M.  S.  Littlefield. 

(S.  S.  Times  Co.,  $1.00.) 
*The  Pupil  and  the  Teacher,  L.  A.  Weigle.     (Geo.  H. 

Doran  Co.,  50c.) 
Organizing  and  Building  Up  the  Sunday  School,  J.  L. 

Hurlbut.     (Eaton  &  Mains,  65c  net.) 
Adult  Bible  Classes,  Irving  F.  Wood.     (Pilgrim  Press, 

75c.) 

238 


THE  TEACHER'S  TOOL-CHEST 

The  Training  of  the  Twig,  C.  L.  Drawbridge.  (Long- 
mans, $1.25.) 

SUNDAY  SCHOOL  CURRICrUI.A 

An  Outline  of  a  Bihle-School  Curriculum,  George  W. 

Pease.     (U.  of  C.  Press,  $1.50  net.) 
Missions   in   the   Sunday   School,   Martha    B.    Hixson. 

(Young  People's  Missionary  Movement,  25c  net; 

paper,  15c  net.) 
The  Teaching  of  Bible  Classes,  Edwin  F.  See.     (Y.  M. 

C.  A.  Press,  50c.) 

ILLUSTRATIVE   SUNDAY   SCHOOL   TEXTS 

The  Life  of  Jesus,  Herbert  W.  Gates.  Illustrating  '*  Con- 
structive Series."     (Univ.  of  Chicago  Press,  75c.) 

Gospel  in  the  Church,  illustrating  ^' Young  Churchman" 
Graded  Series.     (Young  Churchman  Co.) 

Epistles  of  New  Testament,  illustrating  S.  S.  Commis- 
sion of  New  York.     (Young  Churchman  Co.) 

Stories  from  Old  Testament;  World  Stories  and  Bible  as 
Literature,  illustrating  Unitarian  Series.  (Amer. 
Unit.  S.  S.  Soc.) 

Heroes  of  the  Faith  and  Christian  Life  and  Conduct, 
illustrating  Bible  Study  Union  Series.  (Chas.  Scrib- 
ners. ) 

Religious  Education  Through  Graded  Instruction,  illus- 
trating Constructive  Series.  (Univ.  of  Chicago 
Press,  free.) 

Boys  and  Girls  in  Hebrew  Homes,  J.  L.  Keedy.  Illus- 
trating ^'Keedy"  Series.     (Graded  S.  S.  Pub.  Co.) 

Kindergarten  Lessons  for  Church  Sunday  Schools. 
(Young  Churchman  Co.,  75c  net.) 

The  Books  of  the  Bible,  Hazard  and  Fowler.    Illustrat- 
ing Senior  Texts.     (Pilgrim  Press,  50c  net.) 
239 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

THE  HOME 

The  Culture  of  Justice,  Patterson  DuBois.  (Dodd, 
Mead  &  Co.,  75c  net.) 

*T}ie  Progress  of  Moral  and  Beligious  Education  in 
the  American  Home,  C.  W.  Votaw.  (Religious  Edu- 
cation Association,  25c.) 

Making  the  Best  of  Our  Children,  Mary  "Wood-Allen. 
2  vols.     (McClurg,  $1.00  each,  net.) 

Fingerposts  to  Children's  Beading,  W.  T.  Field.  (A. 
C.  McClurg  &  Co.,  $1.00  net.) 

§The  Training  of  Children  in  Beligion,  George  Hodges. 
(Appletons,  $1.50  net.) 

PUBLIC   SCHOOLS 

Moral  Training  in  the  Public  Schools,  C.  E.  Rugh,  et  al. 
Ginn  &  Co.,  $1.25.) 

Moral  Instruction  and  Training  in  Schools,  M.  E.  Sad- 
ler.   2  vols.     (Longmans,  $1.50  each.) 

Systematic  Moral  Instruction,  John  K.  Clark.  (A.  S. 
Barnes  Co.,  $1.00  net.) 

Wider  Use  of  the  School  Plant,  C.  A.  Perry.  (Charities 
Pub.  Committee,  $1.25.) 

Laggards  in  Our  Schools,  L.  P.  Ayres.  (Charities  Pub- 
lication Committee,  $1.50.) 

SOCIAL 

The  Spirit  of  Youth  and  the  City  Streets,  Jane  Addams. 

(Macmillan,  $1.25.) 
Social    Development    and    Education,    M.    V.    O'Shea. 

(Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  $2.00.) 
Social  Education,  C.  A.   Scott.      (Ginn  &  Co.,  $1.25.) 
Social  Solutions,  Thomas   C.  Hall.     (Eaton  &  Mains, 

$1.50  net.) 

240 


THE  TEACHER'S  TOOL-CHEST 

Social  Settlement  Movement,  William  I.  Cole.  (Bulle- 
tin, Harvard  Univ.) 

COLLEGE    AND   UNIVERSITY 

Individual  Training  in  Colleges ,  C.  S.  Birdseye.  (Mac- 
millan,  $1.75  net) 

Trend  in  Higher  Education,  William  R.  Harper.  (Uni- 
versity of  Chicago  Press,  $1.50.) 

BOYS  AND  GIRLS 

The  Boy  Problem,  W.  B,   Forbush.     (Pilgrim  Press, 

$1.00  net.) 
How  to  Deal  with  Lads,  P.   Green.     (Longmans,  80c 

net.) 
*The  Coming  Generation,  W.  B.  Forbush.     (Appletons, 

$1.50.) 
Building  Boyhood.     (Association  Press,  $1.00  net.) 
The  Girl  in  Her  Teens,  Margaret  Slattery.     (S.  S.  Times 

Co.,  50c.) 
Building  Your   Girl,  Kenneth  Wayne.     McClurg,   50c 

net.) 
Girl  and  Woman,   C.  W.  Latimer.     (Appleton,  $1.50 

net.) 


241 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

PUBLIC  OPINION  AND  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

Peesonal  inquiries  at  first  hand  of  many  schools 
in  many  different  parts  of  the  country  leaves  one 
with  a  very  clear  impression  as  to  at  least  one 
hindrance  to  the  general  adoption  of  the  graded 
lessons  for  Sunday  schools.  The  impediment 
which  obtrudes  itself  everywhere  is  the  suspicion 
on  the  part  of  persons  of  at  least  only  average 
intelligence  that  the  lessons  are  simply  the  pet 
propaganda  of  pedagogical  faddists.  One  meets 
the  antipathy  and  opposition  due  to  this  notion 
not  so  frequently  in  the  minds  of  teachers  as  on 
the  lips  of  officers  and  laymen.  Sometimes  it  is 
expressed  in  terms  of  rather  cheap  derision  by 
pastors  whose  intelligence  on  matters  of  wider 
interest  than  sermon-making  is  often  sub-normal. 
That  is  a  safe  statement  to  make  here,  since  these 
pastors  would  scorn  to  be  guilty  of  reading  any- 
thing dealing  with  the  foolish  fads  of  psychology 
and  pedagogy.  These  people  will  tell  you  that 
the  one  thing  needed  to  *^run  a  schooP'  is  good, 
old   common-sense   and   religious   devotion.     Of 

242 


PUBLIC  OPINION  AND  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

course,  they  forget  that  there  is  nothing  more 
sane  or  sensible  than  the  open-eyed  recognition 
of  truth,  nor  more  truly  devout  than  obedience 
to  divine  laws  as  written  in  the  nature  of  our 
lives.  But  that  is  not  the  point  of  this  discussion. 
Yet  the  people  who  scoff  at  gradation  as  fad- 
dism  are  the  people  whose  general  sympathy 
either  sustains  or  breaks  down  the  school.  They 
do  not  teach,  but  they  touch  the  general  life  of 
the  school  either  vitally  or  fatally.  Their  opin- 
ions percolate  through  the  church  body,  turning 
the  minds  of  parents  to  indifference,  chilling  the 
mental  atmosphere  breathed  by  the  teachers,  cre- 
ating a  public  opinion  that  leads  to  expressions 
of  congregational  opposition  for  which  there  is 
no  conscious  rational  basis.  The  need  of  the  Sun- 
day school  to-day  is  a  widespread,  healthy  public 
opinion — perhaps  one  might  better  say,  church 
opinion — to  support  its  endeavours  toward  reli- 
gious efficiency  on  educational  lines. 

EDUCATING  THE  CHUECH 

The  greatest  single  need  of  this  moment  seems 
to  be  the  education  of  general  opinion  to  a  clear 
understanding  of  the  reasons  for  the  graded 
school,  to  a  recognition  of  the  sound  common- 
sense  of  which  modern  educational  plans  are  only 
the  clear  and  practical  expression.  It  ought  to 
be  possible  to  lead  every  sensible  person  to  see 
the  folly  of  labelling  gradation  as  a  fad.  This 
facile  phrase,  **only  a  fad,''  is  the  easiest  and 

243 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

most  witless  weapon  of  the  slothful  mind.  Every 
intelligent  pastor  owes  it  as  a  simple  duty  to 
his  people  to  teach  them  something  of  our  more 
recent  readings  of  God's  ways  of  bringing  souls 
to  their  fulness.  He  is  dealing  to-day  with  people 
who  get  their  education  from  ephemeral  maga- 
zines and  their  prejudices  from  daily  papers. 
Yet  he  has  the  task  of  directing  and  training  them 
to  the  tremendous  undertakings  of  the  church. 
It  will  not  do  to  leave  the  people  to  form  their 
ideas  on  the  important  subject  of  religious  edu- 
cation from  the  cheap  witticisms  of  cub  reporters 
detailed  to  interview  the  college  professors  on 
some  scientific  discovery.  The  newspapers  are 
not  to-day  a  sufficient  guide  in  either  educational 
or  religious  matters.  The  work  of  the  Sunday 
school  calls  for  the  service  of  the  scientific  spe- 
cialist. That  means  nothing  esoteric,  porten- 
tously academic,  nor  in  any  way  removed  from 
common  sense.  The  pastor  owes  it  to  his  people 
— ^the  greater  number  of  whom  know  nothing 
whatever  on  the  subject  of  religious  pedagogy, 
and  therefore  are  able  to  discuss  it  with  absolute 
freedom — ^to  lead  them  to  a  sympathetic  under- 
standing of  the  service  that  science  is  rendering 
in  this  particular.  We  need  sermons  such  as 
Horace  Bushnell  preached  for  the  education  of 
the  popular  mind  on  religious  education.  We 
have  to  convert  and  educate  the  constituency  upon 
which  the  school  leans  for  moral  and  financial 
support. 

244 


PUBLIC  OPINION  AND  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 


In  sucli  a  campaign  of  popular  education  we 
have  to  look  to  the  pastors  for  the  most  direct  and 
effective  work.  Besides  preaching  on  the  subject 
in  such  a  way  as  to  clear  the  mind  of  prejudices, 
he  may  do  such  to  direct  the  reading  of  his  people. 
Either  in  the  discourse  or  in  the  church  publica- 
tions or  by  bulletins  posted  in  the  church  he  may 
call  attention  to  the  current  literature  on  the 
modern  work  of  religious  education,  both  in 
church  and  school  and  home.  Not  a  month  passes 
nowadays  without  some  really  significant,  read- 
able article  appearing  in  our  current  literature 
on  religious  training.  In  one  month  there  were 
in  popular  magazines,  not  counting  weeklies  nor 
technical  publications,  some  half  dozen  good  ar- 
ticles on  religious  training  in  the  home,  Sunday 
school  and  college.  People  will  read  these  if  their 
attention  is  directed  to  them.  They  need  this 
leadership.  The  pastor  should  lead  his  flock  into 
such  pastures.  He  must  feel  his  intellectual  re- 
sponsibility. The  uplands  of  knowledge  are  not 
for  his  enjoyment  alone.  A  leader  is  not  only 
one  who  goes  before,  but  one  who  so  goes  before 
that  others  follow.  The  test  of  a  widely-read  pas- 
tor is  a  well-read  people. 

The  books  which  laymen  will  read,  the  books 
which  mothers  will  study  on  the  training  of  chil- 
dren, the  work  of  the  church  and  the  home  in 
teaching  religion,  multiply  fast.    They  ought  to 

245 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

be  in  the  possession  of  the  churches,  to  be  passed 
from  home  to  home.  They  ought  to  be  owned  by 
every  man  and  every  woman  who  cares  at  all 
about  the  welfare  of  youth  and  the  future  of  the 
church.  If  the  pastor  will  call  attention  to  them, 
read  them  himself  and  advise  their  reading,  he 
will  find  that  many  of  his  problems  of  religious 
education  are  solving  themselves.  He  will  find 
that  when  new  plans,  approved  by  the  scientific 
mind,  are  adopted  in  his  school  or  church,  there 
is  a  sound,  informed,  sympathetic  public  opinion 
ready  to  back  them  up.  With  that  we  can  go  far 
and  fairly  fast;  without  it  but  a  little  distance 
at  a  time.  We  cannot  too  soon  begin  the  creation 
of  a  supporting  public  opinion  for  the  forward 
movement  of  the  Sunday  school. 

Public  opinion  must  be  educated  in  the  church, 
for  church  opinion  supports  this  school.  Here  are 
some  suggestions  on  a  method  of  developing 
thoughtf nines s  and  shaping  opinion  within  the 
church:  Have  some  large  placards,  or  display 
banners  prepared  with  striking  arguments  on  the 
need  and  value  of  Sunday  school  work.  Secure 
permission  to  hang  these  in  the  church  on  a  Sun- 
day when  the  pastor  will  agree  to  preach  on  the 
work  of  the  school.  Let  the  placards  include  short 
mottoes  like  these: 


*'The  Soul  of  All  Culture  is  the  Cul- 
ture OF  the  Soul.''  — BushnelL 


246 


PUBLIC  OPINION  AND  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 


You  Cannot  Purify  the  Well  by  Paint- 
ing THE  Pump.  Begin  With  the  Springs 
OF  Life  in  the  Sunday  School. 


We  Need  Not  Predict  the  Future — We 
Can  Determine  It  if  We  Educate  the 
Whole  of  Every  Child  for  the  Whole  of 
Life. 


The  Children  of  To-day  are  the  Church 
OF  To-morrow.  How  Much  Do  We  Invest 
TO  Hold  and  Train  Them  for  the  Church? 


It  is  Better  to  Form  Than  to  Reform. 


Besides  these  small  placards  there  should  be 
large  displays  containing  more  careful  arguments. 
The  following  will  serve  to  suggest  the  idea. 
They  should  all  be  designed  to  awaken  thought  as 
to  the  efficiency  of  the  school  and  its  claims  to 
adequate  support. 

the  child  tests  the  church 
You  may  know  how  seriously  a  church  takes  its  work 
by  the  provision  it  makes  for  the  child  in : 

I.    Adequate  Plant  for  Religious  Culture. 

Building  designed  for  child  instruction,  activity, 
—inspiration. 

247 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

Building  separate  and  designed  for  child  religious 
worship  and  life. 

Special  rooms  for  classes. 

Special  tools,  blackboards,  manual  and  play  ma- 
terials. 
II.   Adequate  Working  Force. 

1.  A  '^Director"  of  Religious  Education. 
(Many  churches  have  these  directions.     IVIany 
others  have  paid  Sunday  school  superintend- 
ents. ) 

2.  Directors  of  Play  and  Gymnasium. 

(A  number  of  churches  have  salaried  instruc- 
tors. Some  do  their  physical  work  in  the  Y. 
M.  C.  A.) 

3.  Teaching  Force  for  the  School. 

Trained  to  teach.  (Some  churches  pay  their 
teachers. ) 

4.  Home  Workers  who  take  life  of  church  into 
children's  homes. 

III.    An  Adequate  Program  op  Child  Culture. 

1.  A    Graded    Curriculum    of    Studies    meeting 
child's  developing  needs  and  interest. 

2.  A  graded  series  of  activities  and  service  for 
child  life. 

3.  Training  in  social  relations  and  duties. 

4.  Practical  preparation  for  lifers  duties  as  citi- 
zen, home-maker,  church  worker. 

5.  Educational  organization  of  the  church  school 
according  to 

(1)  Life  Periods: 

Infancy,  up  to  7,  Beginners. 
Early  Childhood,  up  to  10,  Primary. 
Later  Childhood,  up  to  14,  Junior. 
Early  Adolescence,  up  to  18,  Intermediate. 
248 


PUBLIC  OPINION  AND  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

Later  Adolescence,  up  to  25,  Senior. 
Adult  Years,  Adult. 

(2)  Each  Division  having: 

(a)  A  principal  in  charge. 

(b)  Group  of  suitable  teachers. 

(3)  Each  grade  or  class  having  special  social 
life  and  activities. 

A  PERMANENT   EDUCATIONAL  EXHIBIT 

The  next  suggestion  calls  for  more  work,  but 
it  offers  promise  of  larger  and  more  varied  re- 
turns. Enlist  the  workers  of  the  church  and 
school,  including  all  students  who  will  cooperate, 
in  the  task  of  collecting  and  installing  a  perma- 
nent Exhibit  on  Eeligious  Education  in  the 
Church. 

This  exhibit  should  seek  to  show  the  scope  of 
the  educational  work  of  the  local  church,  includ- 
ing the  school,  the  best  metliods  in  use,  the  plans 
of  operation,  the  needs  of  the  work  and  the  pro- 
gramme for  the  future.  It  should  include  pic- 
tures, charts,  maps,  diagrams,  samples  of  work, 
outlines  and  objects  showing  just  what  is  being 
done  or  is  to  be  done. 

The  exhibit  should  be  installed  in  classrooms 
convenient  for  visitors.  Much  of  the  material 
can  be  mounted  on  cards  to  be  hung  on  the  walls. 
The  best  way  is  to  hang  the  cards  on  tapes  run- 
ning through  eyelet  holes  in  the  cards.  Other 
materials  can  be  set  up  in  book-cases  and  cabinets. 

All  the  labour  involved  is  not  a  drawback,  but 
an  advantage.   Plan  to  take  plenty  of  time  for  this 

249 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

work  and  to  enlist  the  services  of  as  many  of 
the  boys  and  girls  as  you  can.  You  will  thus 
educate  them,  and  they  will  keep  their  parents 
informed,  awakening  curiosity  and  preparing  for 
the  very  purpose  of  your  exhibit.  Scarcely  any 
form  of  manual  work  for  the  Sunday  school  stu- 
dents could  be  designed  which  would  be  more 
valuable  than  participation  in  the  preparation  of 
this  exhibit. 

The  two  schemes  or  outline  plans  for  exhibits 
which  follow  are  for  (1)  An  Exhibit  for  the  Local 
Sunday  School,  and  (2)  An  Exhibit  on  Moral 
and  Civic  Education.  Plan  to  gather  and  install 
the  exhibit  on  the  school  first.  The  very  work  on 
that  will  reveal  the  need  for  the  other. 

PLAN  FOR  A  LOCAL  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  EXHIBIT 

A.  Historical. 

Photographs  of  church,  Sunday  school  building  and 
rooms  in  the  past. 

Text-books  used  in  the  past. 

Supplies  of  previous  years,  including  circulars,  an- 
nouncements. 

B.  Equipment. 

Photographs  and  drawings  showing  present  physical 

plant,   buildings,   etc. 
Photographs  and  drawings  showing  other  plans  of 

schools. 
Drawings  of  an  ideal  Sunday  school  plant  for  the 

community. 
Books  on  Sunday  school  building  and  equipment. 

C.  Personnel. 

Photographs  of  present  officers. 
250 


PUBLIC  OPINION  AND  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

D.  Organization. 

Chart  showing  scheme  of  organization  and  officers. 
Chart  showing  plan  of  gradation  of  classes. 
Photographs  of  school  assembled;  all,  by  depart- 
ments, by  classes. 

E.  Sunday  School  Principles. 

Large  cards  setting  forth  the  principles  of  a  mod- 
ern Sunday  school,  showing  how  large  an  invest- 
ment it  needs  and  justifies,  how  small  a  propor- 
tion of  time  and  money  it  now  receives,  etc.  Set 
this  section  here,  so  that  interest  may  be  first 
quickened  by  all  that  goes  before,  and  ready  to 
receive  the  arguments  of  these  cards. 

F.  Lesson  Materl^l. 

Chart  showing  plan  of  graded  studies. 
Examples  of  lesson  material,  text-books,  shown  by 

departments,  by  grades  and  by  classes. 
Large  chart  showing  the  subjects  studied. 

G.  Activities. 

Examples  of  pupil's  lesson  work,  home  work. 

Examples  of  manual  work. 

Institutions,  etc.,  aided  by  the  school. 

School  recreation,  play  and  social  life. 

Sewing  classes,  cooking,  etc.,  etc.,  adjuncts  to  school. 
H.    Demonstrations. 

Of  class  at  work. 

Manual  work. 

Teachers'  council,  sitting  in  meeting. 

Kindergarten  assembled,  plays,  etc. 
I.   A  Statement  of  Aims  and  Needs. 

Set  out,  in  simplest  shortest  terms  possible,  on  large 
cards  the  facts  of  your  community ^  the  plans  you 
have  to  meet  its  needs,  the  support  which  all 
can  give. 

251 


EFFICIENCY  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

SUGGESTIONS  FOR  EXHIBIT  ON  MORAL  AND  CIVIC  EDUCATION 

1.  Section  on  Philosophy  of  Moral  Education. 

Special   work   on   this   subject.     Keference   books. 

Reports. 
Set  up  in  large  placards  terse  statements  of  leading 

thinkers  on  the  moral  aim  in  education. 

2.  Section  on  the  Student. 

Studies  and  diagrams  showing  moral,  personal  en- 
vironment of  school  children. 

Diagrams  on  foreign  population,  with  its  needs  of 
education  in  civil  duties. 

Diagrams  on  Heredity,  as  Juke's  family. 

Photographs  of  school  children,  '^before  and  after." 

3.  Organization. 

Agencies  for  promoting  moral  and  *' religious"  ed- 
ucation. 

Pamphlets,  circulars,  prospectuses  of  organizations. 

Material  published  by  such  agencies. 

Descriptions  of  institutions. 

Place  of  the  home  as  agency  in  moral  education. 

Training-schools  for  nurses. 

Public  schools,  place  in  work  of. 

Photographs  of  special  institutions,  as  Sunday 
schools  of  modern  type. 

Plants  and  equipment  in  public  schools  and  other 
agencies. 

Preventive  work,  as  boys'  clubs,  *'gang"  organiza- 
tions, school-civic  organizations. 

4.  Curricula. 

Text  and  study  material.  Morals,  ethics,  civics,  pa- 
triotism, heroes,  biography.  National  history, 
civics,  physiology  and  hygiene. 

Sample  lesson  outlines.    Pupil's  work. 

252 


PUBLIC  OPINION  AND  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

School  and  other  curricula ;  diagrams  showing  place 
of  these  studies. 
5.    Method. 

Outlines  of  plans. 

Photographs  of  groups  in  ' ' expressional  activities," 
as  in  school  government ;  school  cities,  groups  en- 
gaged in  relief  work,  ambulance  work,  improve- 
ment and  city  beautiful  work. 

Story-telling  in  public  libraries. 

Mothers'  and  parents'  councils. 


253 


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